"  He  covered  up  his  peculations  by  manipulating  the  bank's  books." 

Frontispiece, 
(See  page  x,  Jiit 


THE  TELLER'S  TALE 


A  BANKING  STORY  FOR  BANKERS 

A  LAW  STORY  FOR  LAWYERS 

A  LOVE  STORY  FOR  LOVERS 


BY 

PHIL.  A.  RUSH 


NEW  YORK 

fmtcftetbocfeer  press 

1905 


COPYRIGHT,  1905 

BY 
PHIL.  A.  RUSH 


Entered  at  Stationers'  Hall 
A II  Rights  Reserved 


DEDICATED  TO 

THE  FAITHFUL  BANK  EMPLOYEES 
OF  AMERICA 


2138096 


CONTENTS 


PART  I 

CHAPTER 

INTRODUCTORY        . 
I.     WILLOW  SPRINGS. 
II.     ARTHUR  AND  MARY 

III.  ALBERT  AND  ALICE 

IV.  LOVE'S  LABOR        . 

V.  PASSION  TENDER  AND  TRUE  . 
VI.  MOTHER  AND  DAUGHTER 
VII.  THE  COLONEL  AND  j  Col.  Wilmot } 
THE  CONGRESSMAN  ( Mr.  Blair     } 
VIII.  THE  BLAIRS  AT  HOME    . 
IX.  THE  BANKERS'  MEETING 
X.  How  SHALL  WE  KNOW? 
XL  COLONEL  WILMOT  AND  THE  BANK- 
ERS  

XII.  MINISTER  AND  NOBLEMAN 

XIII.  THE  LAW 

XIV.  LIGHT  IN  DARK  PLACES 
XV.  POLITICS  AND  POLITICIANS 

XVI.     THE  RACE  is  WON 


PAGE 

vii 
I 
8 

16 

21 
29 

35 
40 

52 
59 
76 

93 
98 

i°5 

112 
117 
122 


VI 


Contents 


PART  II 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVII.     WILL  SORROWS  NEVER  CEASE?     125 
XVIII.     ARTHUR'S  STORY:  LESSONS  AND 

REFLECTIONS          .         .         -131 
XIX.     ARTHUR'S  STORY:  IN  THE  BANK  141 
XX.     ARTHUR'S  STORY:  TEMPTATION    148 
XXI.     ARTHUR'S   STORY:     PRACTISING 

TO  DECEIVE  .         .         .  153 

XXII.     ARTHUR'S  STORY:    A  TANGLED 

WEB       .....  161 

XXIII.  ARTHUR'S  STORY:  CONFLICTS  OF 

CONSCIENCE  .         .         .  168 

XXIV.  IN  THE  TOILS     .        .        .        .173 
XXV.     WEEPING  AT  NIGHT  .         .  181 

XXVI.  TRUTH  MOVES  UNSEEN  .  .  184 

XXVII.  THE  WASTE-BASKET  .  .  192 

XXVIII.  THE  DEATH  OF  MRS.  WARD  .  200 

XXIX.  THE  TOILS  UNWOUND  .  .  203 

XXX.  FROM  OVER  THE  SEA  .  .  206 

XXXI.  JOY  IN  THE  MORNING  .  .212 

EPILOGISTIC       .         .  .  .217 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 


HE  COVERED  UP  HIS  PECULATIONS  BY  MA- 
NIPULATING THE  BANK'S  BOOKS 

Frontispiece 

THE  CHARM  OF  HER  MAGNIFICENT  PHYSICAL 

BEAUTY 10 

COLONEL  WILMOT  READING  HIS  PAPER  AT 

THE  BANKERS'  MEETING      .         .         .64 

"  I  USED  THE  MONEY  OF  THE  BANK,  AND 

LOST,  TIME  AFTER  TIME  "  .         .         .  163 

MR.  ADAMS  REACHED  DOWN  INTO  THE 
WASTE  BASKET  FOR  PAPER  TO  SCRIB- 
BLE ON  ......  192 

THEY  PLACED  SOME  FLOWERS  THERE  IN 
MEMORY  OF  WHAT  SHE  HAD  BEEN  TO 
THEM  .  216 


Vll 


INTRODUCTORY 


(Clipped  from  Newspapers) 
GAMBLED  IN  GRAIN 

CASHIER  DEFAULTER 

TO  EXTENT  OF 

$170,000 

CAUSED     THE    AMERICAN     EXCHANGE 

BANK  TO  CLOSE  ITS  DOORS 

AT  PARKSBURG 


PARKSBURG,  O.,  Jan.  22. — The  Amer- 
ican Exchange  Banking  Company,  cor- 
ner Broadway  and  Central  Avenue, 
closed  its  doors  to-day.  The  Insolvency 
Court  has  appointed  the  Parksburg 
Trust  Company  as  receivers.  The  assets 
and  liabilities  are  placed  at  $1,500,000 
each. 

Attorney  James  Maguire  on  behalf  of 
the  bank  made  the  following  statement 
this  afternoon: 

"George  A.  Riggs,  cashier  of  the 
bank,  is  a  defaulter  to  the  extent  of 
$i  70,000.  The  defalcation  is  more  than 


Introductory 


the  paid  capital  and  surplus  combined. 
The  original  capital  was  $200,000,  but 
only  $50  per  share  was  paid  in.  The 
depositors  will  be  protected  fully.  The 
stockholders  will  have  to  pay  in  the  sum 
of  $100,000  more  on  their  capital  stock 
and  $200,000  on  stockholders'  liability. 
' '  The  directors  worked  all  day  trying 
to  make  up  the  deficiency,  but  the  bur- 
den was  too  heavy  and  they  decided  to 
close  the  bank. 

"FOR  MANY   YEARS   RlGGS   HAS   BEEN 
SPECULATING   IN   GRAIN.        HE   COVERED 

UP  HIS  PECULATIONS  BY  MANIPULATING 
THE  BANK'S  BOOKS." 


EMBEZZLER  OF  $100,000 
CAPTURED  IN  MEMPHIS 

JAMES  M.  EDDY 

DEFAULTING  TELLER 

THIRD  NATIONAL  BANK 

CLEVELAND,  N.  J. 


MEMPHIS,  TENN.,  January  8. — James 
M.  Eddy  was  arrested  here  to-day 
charged  with  embezzling  $100,000  from 
the  Third  National  Bank  of  Cleveland, 
N.  J.,  while  occupying  the  position  of 
teller. 

Eddy  was  found  driving  a  butter 
wagon,  attired  in  a  sweater  and  cap  and 
other  clothing  usual  to  the  occupation, 
and  bore  but  little  resemblance  to  the 
dressy  figure  so  familiar  in  Cleveland's 
social  set  sixteen  months  ago. 

He  was  going  under  the  name  of 
George  Dane,  but  when  arrested  and 
confronted  by  the  Pinkerton  man  he 
readily  admitted  his  identity  and  con- 
fessed his  guilt. 


Introductory  xi 

RACE  HORSES  HIS  DOWNFALL 

Eddy  said  that  while  with  the  bank 
he  had  contracted  the  habit  of  betting 
on  the  races,  and  that  this  habit  had 
resulted  in  his  downfall. 

Luck  had  not  been  with  him,  and  he 
had  been  compelled  to  use  the  funds  of 
the  bank  to  carry  on  his  betting  opera- 
tions. FOR  NINE  MONTHS  he  had  con- 
tinued in  his  course  of  embezzlement, 
until  finally  being  discovered  he  was 
compelled  to  leave  Cleveland. 

The  thousands  of  dollars  which  had 
passed  through  his  hands  in  the  capa- 
city of  note  teller  had  been  too  strong  a 
temptation  for  Eddy  to  resist.  As  he 
told  the  detective  yesterday,  he  was  no 
piker  in  his  bettings.  If  he  were  playing 
an  apparent  "sure  thing"  it  was  no- 
thing unusual  for  him  to  lay  $4000  and 
$5000  upon  a  race. 

According  to  Eddy's  own  statement, 
money  had  been  taken  from  the  bank 
just  as  he  needed  it — whether  $50  or 
$5000,  it  being  as  easy  to  obtain  one 
sum  as  the  other. 

Ever  before  the  mind  of  Eddy  there 
floated  that  alluring  will-o'-the-wisp — 
hope  that  he  would  sooner  or  later 
make  a  winning  that  would  place  him 
on  his  feet  and  enable  him  to  straighten 
out  his  accounts  with  the  bank.  DUR- 
ING ALL  THAT  TIME  HE  HAD  MANAGED  BY 
SKILFUL  MANIPULATION  TO  KEEP  HIS 
BOOKS  IN  SUCH  SHAPE  THAT  THEY 
WOULD  NOT  REVEAL  HIS  SECRET. 

The  above  are  samples  of  what  we  see 
almost  daily  in  the  public  press.  The 
names  given  of  cities,  banks  and  indi- 
viduals are  fictitious,  but  the  occurrences 
are  real. 


Xll 


Introductory 


Does  a  system  of  banking  which  permits 
such  occurrences  —  which,  confessedly,  is 
powerless  to  prevent  them  —  deserve  our 
confidence?  Has  it  earned  the  right  to 
a  place  among  the  progressive  business 
methods  of  the  day  ? 

If  not,  what  then  ? 

THE  AUTHOR. 

Two  OAKS,  March,  1905. 


The  Teller's  Tale 


The  Teller's  Tale 


Part  I 


CHAPTER  I 

WILLOW   SPRINGS 

UPON  a  plateau  where  the  sand-hills 
which  rise  from  the  river  many 
miles  to  the  south,  meet  the  red  lands 
that  descend  from  the  mountains  far  to 
the  north,  Willow  Springs  lifts  her  proud 
head  as  the  home  of  as  good  civilization, 
past  and  present,  as  our  continent  has 
ever  known. 

Just  how  long  the  town  has  been  in 
existence  no  one  knows;  but  it  was  an 
Indian  village,  called  by  five  words  which 


2  The  Teller's  Tale 

meant  Big-trees-by-rising-water,  from  the 
fact  that  a  great  artesian  spring  comes 
out  of  the  ground  in  the  midst  of  the 
town  and  forms  a  dampness  of  soil 
and  atmosphere  in  which  willow  trees 
grow  to  unusual  size.  And  the  name 
it  now  bears  was  taken  from  the  same 
circumstance. 

Under  these  willows,  in  the  olden  times, 
neighboring  tribes  who  came  for  water, 
and  to  counsel  among  their  friends,  held 
their  meetings  and  discussed  the  courte- 
sies of  the  chase,  and  other  matters  of 
rude  diplomacy. 

And  long  before  the  present  territory 
of  the  State  was  marked  out,  traders 
came  among  the  friendly  natives  and 
exchanged  the  wares  of  civilization  for 
the  returns  of  the  chase  and  the  handi- 
work of  the  wigwam. 

Some  of  the  Indians  remained  long 
after  the  white  man  became  the  pre- 
vailing type  in  the  community,  and  even 
retained  ownership  of  lots  in  the  town 
after  it  was  laid  off  by  municipal  sur- 
veys. And  on  the  county  records  at 


Willow  Springs  3 

Willow  Springs  may  be  seen  some  deeds 
to  town  lots  made  by  old  Tush-mo -ko-lah 
and  others  of  his  tribe — curious  things 
indeed  to  come  from  those  children  of 
the  forest. 

But  now  Tush-mo-ko-lah  has  perished 
from  the  earth,  and  his  descendants  are 
huddled  in  a  narrow  place  in  a  strange 
land — sullen,  silent,  and  sad — waiting 
for  the  Great  Father  to  call  them  to 
the  happy  hunting-grounds  beyond  the 
grave. 

Long  years  have  passed  since  that 
time,  and  the  town  has  had  its  trials  and 
triumphs  in  both  war  and  peace.  Its 
people  have  planted  trees  on  their  broad 
thoroughfares  and  erected  dwellings  gen- 
erally of  more  than  average  size  and 
beauty  on  the  spacious  lots,  while  the 
County  Court-house  in  the  centre  of  a 
large  business  square,  and  the  several 
churches,  schools  of  learning,  and  other 
buildings  of  a  public  nature,  as  well 
as  the  private  manufacturing  establish- 
ments situated  on  the  railroad  skirt- 
ing two  sides  of  the  town,  give  us  the 


4  The  Teller's  Tale 

appearance  and  the  fact  of  substantial 
growth  and  prosperity. 

In  both  civic  and  political  life  Willow 
Springs  has  been  more  prominent  in 
days  gone  by  than  any  other  place  in 
the  State.  Being  attractively  located, 
it  drew  from  the  older  States  men  of 
character,  scholarship,  and  ability,  who 
pre-empted  large  bodies  of  fertile  lands, 
and  brought  their  slaves  to  help  reduce 
them  to  cultivation. 

Later  followed  the  invention  and  in- 
troduction of  the  cotton-gin,  which  gave 
to  the  growth  of  cotton  such  an  impetus, 
and  to  the  lands  themselves  such  a  value, 
as  the  pioneer  had  never  dreamed  of. 
And  with  it  all  there  came  a  life  strenu- 
ous, especially  in  the  law,  for  settling 
vexed  legal  questions  and  fixing  rights, 
and  in  politics,  for  studying  statecraft 
and  maintaining  the  institutions  which 
had  grown  up  with,  and  out  of,  slavery. 
The  issues  involved  were  sufficient  to 
arouse  within  them  all  the  ambitions 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race,  while  the  op- 
portunity which  leisure  and  wealth  gave 


Willow  Springs  5 

for  prosecuting  ambition  and  developing 
ability  made  them  what  they  were. 

This  spirit  of  activity  on  a  high  plane 
pervaded  other  sections  of  the  country, 
but  Willow  Springs  was  the  highly 
favored.  She  had  more  great  lawyers 
at  the  bar,  before  the  War  of  Secession, 
and  more  judges  on  the  bench,  and  more 
statesmen  in  the  halls  of  legislation ;  and 
had  more  commissioned  officers,  from 
general  down,  in  that  war,  than  any 
other  three  towns  of  the  same  size  in 
the  State. 

These  great  men  have  all  gone  to  their 
fathers.  The  circumstances  which  made 
them  have  passed  away.  Greatness  is 
now  being  developed  along  new  lines. 
Some  of  the  sons  of  these  men  have 
caught  the  spirit  of  this  later  day  and  are 
relatively  in  the  position  occupied  by 
their  forbears.  But,  with  most  of  them, 
the  changes  were  either  too  great  for  the 
inherited  trend  of  their  lives,  or  they  in- 
herited the  vices  transmitted  from  their 
sires,  not  their  virtues;  and  they  are 
to-day  either  struggling  with  the  dry 


6  Tne  Teller's  Tale 

bones  of  the  past,  trying  to  make  the 
skeleton  stand  upon  its  feet,  or  punily  and 
pitifully  occupying  minor  positions  in  the 
new  life,  eking  out  a  bare  existence. 

And  in  looking  at  the  past  of  those 
people  and  the  present — the  causes  of 
yesterday  which  brought  their  certain 
effects,  and  the  causes  of  to-day  with 
effects  unknown — I  think  one  who  has 
lived  through  the  past,  or  understands 
the  past,  is  but  a  poor  observer  if  he 
cannot  form  an  hypothetical  equation 
of  the  known  qualities,  and  from  them 
find  the  unknown. 

If  so,  then  the  life  which  lies  about  us 
is  replete  with  suggestions  for  the  writer, 
on  lines  which  are  interesting,  instruc- 
tive, and  inexhaustible. 

This  reminds  me  of  the  story  of  one 
who  was  our  guest  in  troublesome  times 
— a  poor  German  laborer  who  came  to 
this  country  before  the  war,  and  settled 
in  another  part  of  the  State.  Having 
enlisted  in  the  Southern  cause  he  was 
with  his  command  at  Willow  Springs 
when  the  Federals  were  driven  from  the 


Willow  Springs  7 

town.  The  surprisedness  of  the  attack 
having  forced  the  enemy  to  leave  the 
paymaster's  supplies  behind,  the  patriotic 
Confederates  were  proceeding  to  destroy 
everything,  when  the  thrifty  Dutchman, 
thinking  to  hold  both  ends  of  the  credit 
currency  string  (one  of  which  was  grow- 
ing very  weak  at  that  time),  filled  his 
knapsack  full  of  greenbacks  and  bore 
them  safely  home  at  the  conclusion  of 
peace. 

I  see  it  stated  that  only  one  person 
out  of  fifty  knows  how  to  use  money 
which  he  has  not  earned.  This  may  be 
true,  but,  if  so,  this  was  the  one  of  the 
fifty.  For  he  became  a  man  of  affairs 
—a  successful  planter,  banker,  manu- 
facturer— and  reared  a  large  family  of 
worthy  children,  now  among  the  pros- 
perous citizens  of  the  New  South. 

And — but  let  that  pass,  to  become  a 
part  of  the  story  which  follows  this 
(The  Second  Slavery),  while  we  linger  at 
the  flowing  fountain  of  Willow  Springs 
and  listen  to  a  recital  of  The  Teller's  Tale. 


CHAPTER  II 

ARTHUR   AND   MARY 

Arthur  St.  John  love  Mary  Blair? 
The  gossips  said  he  did.  The  gos- 
sips ought  to  know,  judging  from  the 
interest  they  take  and  the  noise  they 
make.  Anyhow,  if  Arthur  St.  John  had 
been  asked  by  any  one  having  the  right 
to  know,  he  would  have  answered  in  the 
affirmative. 

Why  should  he  not  love  the  brunette 
beauty  of  splendid  physique,  of  charming 
manners,  of  fine  accomplishments?  A 
little  cold  at  times,  a  little  spoiled  al- 
ways, might  not  a  lover  find  a  warmth 
beneath  such  exterior  all  the  more  genial 
for  the  reason  that  it  glowed  for  him 
alone  ?  Volcanic  fires  are  sometimes  con- 
cealed within  the  mountain  whose  crest 
is  covered  with  snow. 

8 


Arthur  and  Mary  9 

Mary  Blair  was  the  daughter  of  the 
Hon.  Charles  Henry  Blair,  the  Con- 
gressman from  the  district  of  which 
Willow  Springs  is  the  centre,  he  having 
been  elected  to  this  position  a  number 
of  years  before,  after  presiding  for  two 
terms  over  the  judicial  circuit. 

Since  finishing  school  she  had  been  on 
a  visit  with  him  in  Washington,  and  the 
attentions  she  received  there  would  have 
been  sufficient  to  turn  the  head  and 
shake  the  purposes  of  a  girl  of  less 
resolution;  and  she  was  compelled  to 
admit  to  herself  that  the  small  life  and 
narrow  associations  of  Willow  Springs 
could  not  fill  the  cultivated  capacity  for 
social  life  which  had  been  stirred  within 
her. 

Like  many  other  successful  politicians, 
Mr.  Blair  had  not  forgotten  to  spurn  some- 
what the  steep  ascent  and  rugged  way  by 
which  he  had  climbed,  as  well  as  the  in- 
valuable school  of  necessity  in  which  he 
had  learned  the  earlier  lessons  of  life. 

Spurning  the  way,  he  also  secretly 
despised  those  who  were  yet  sojourners 


io  The  Teller's  Tale 

therein,  and  he  could  not  bear  the 
thought  of  a  village  youth  being  reckoned 
among  the  serious  friends  of  his  daughter. 

Mary  Blair  might  have  made  a  wonder- 
ful match  had  she  remained  in  Washing- 
ton, for  not  many  men  could  resist  the 
fascinating  brilliancy  of  her  mind,  and 
fewer  still  could  fail  to  fall  under  the 
charm  of  her  magnificent  physical  beauty. 

But  while  these  qualities  take  us  by 
storm  when  the  possessor  of  them  bears 
down  upon  us,  they  do  not,  nowadays, 
carry  men  a  thousand  miles,  unless  ac- 
companied by  a  halo  of  riches. 

Mary  Blair  had  no  riches.  Therefore 
when  she  returned  to  Willow  Springs  it 
is  natural  that  she  should  have  dropped 
into  the  rather  quiet  life  at  home,  with 
no  prospect  that  an  outsider  would  come 
to  take  her  from  us. 

It  was  the  wish  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Blair 
that  Mary  should  remain  in  Washington 
—in  the  presence  of  opportunity.  Why 
then  did  she  come  home?  Did  she  re- 
ciprocate the  affection  of  Arthur  St. 
John?  The  gossips  were  busy  with  this 


The  charm  of  her  magnificent  physical  beauty. 


Arthur  and  Mary  1 1 

question  (nothing  seems  too  sacred  for 
the  wag  of  their  tongues),  and  declared 
that  Arthur  St.  John  was  the  one  at- 
traction that  could  reconcile  her  to  the 
oppressive  dulness  in  the  old  life  at 
home.  And  the  gossips  are  sometimes 
right. 

Who  was  this  Arthur  St.  John,  that 
the  world  as  Mary  saw  it  should  have 
moved  about  him  as  a  common  centre? 
Only  this, — a  young  man  of  honesty, 
earnestness,  cleverness,  character, — ad- 
mired by  everybody  who  liked  goodness 
and  cleverness. 

Mary  and  Arthur  had  been  children 
together,  their  parents  living  on  ad- 
jacent lots  in  the  town;  and  she  being 
an  only  child,  the  two  were  associated 
almost  as  closely  as  brother  and  sister. 
Many  a  time  did  the  dark  curls  of  the 
girl  and  the  light  hair  of  the  boy  bend 
together  over  the  sand -pile,  building 
castles  which  a  summer  shower  would 
melt  away.  They  sat  side  by  side  in  the 
swing ;  and  gathered  nuts  under  the  old 
hickory  tree  in  the  St.  John  yard,  Mary 


12  The  Teller's  Tale 

bringing  them  in  her  apron  and  pouring 
them  down,  where  Arthur,  hammer  in 
hand,  soon  converted  them  into  a  goodly 
feast  for  their  childish  appetites. 

They  attended  the  mixed  school  to- 
gether, and  often  spent  their  evenings 
by  the  same  lamplight,  the  stronger, 
analytical  mind  of  the  boy  guiding  the 
girl  through  many  trying  problems  of 
mathematics,  while  she  helped  him  quite 
as  often  with  her  finer  constructive 
faculty  in  overcoming  the  difficulties  in 
language  and  composition. 

In  their  earlier  and  innocent  child- 
hood they  also  played  sweethearts  with 
that  trustful  earnestness  which  is  char- 
acteristic of  children.  And  this  was  the 
beginning  of  those  feelings  and  sympa- 
thies which  existed  between  Mary  Blair 
and  Arthur  St.  John. 

If  there  is  a  sentiment  more  tender, 
more  impressive,  more  enduring,  than 
that  of  our  first  love,  and  one  which, 
even  in  my  advanced  years,  I  find  my- 
self unable  to  express  in  the  cold,  hard 
lines  of  prose  composition,  I  have  not 


Arthur  and  Mary  13 

felt  it.  There  is  an  impression  made 
then  which  is  unlike  any  ever  made 
afterwards — a  nearness,  a  dearness,  an 
indefinable,  blending  of  spirits,  which  fate 
accords  to  us  but  once  in  this  life,  the  like 
of  which  is  echoed  in  Meredith's  Aux 
Italiens,  the  cry  of  a  soul  for  its  own  first 
love  in  the  happy  youth -time  of  long  ago. 

It  makes  little  difference  what  has 
separated  us  from  that  early  love — in- 
compatibility of  temperament,  inequal- 
ity of  education,  differences  in  caste  or 
social  standing,  ill-health,  duties  calling 
us  apart,  even  death  itself;  nor  does  it 
matter  what  may  be  our  lot  in  after- 
life, there  is  absolutely  nothing  which 
can  supplant  it  or  wholly  supply  its 
place.  The  union  made  with  another 
may  be,  in  every  outward  and  material 
respect,  more  desirable,  without  satis- 
fying the  demands  of  the  heart.  Yet 
there  are  those  who  deny  that  the  spirit 
deals  with  our  affairs  not  religious. 

How  wise  hath  the  Creator  made  the 
laws  which  govern  our  intrinsic  selves! 
For  if  these  matters  were  committed  to 


14  The  Teller's  Tale 

judgment,  not  sentiment,  how,  out  of  a 
multitude  of  meritorious  manhood  and 
womanhood  would  we  be  perpetually 
perplexed,  like  the  referees  at  a  baby 
show,  in  choosing  a  companion  for  life! 
How  weak  would  be  the  bonds  of  matri- 
mony, and  how  unhappy  would  we  be 
in  that  relation,  when  the  imperfections 
of  character  and  disposition  are  dis- 
closed, as  they  surely  are,  by  intimate 
association!  Would  affection  founded 
on  judgment  alone  carry  us  beyond  the 
honeymoon  ? 

But  does  this  imply  that  the  old  love, 
or  the  first  love,  was  the  truer  or  the 
better  love;  or  that  if  realized  it  would 
have  been  more  enjoyed?  On  the  con- 
trary, may  we  not  accept  as  true 
the  sometimes  debated  proposition, 
that  it  is  in  the  pursuit  of  the  things 
desired,  not  in  their  possession,  that 
humanity  finds  its  highest  degree  of 
happiness?  Is  it  not  true  that 

"Man  always  is  to  be,  but  never  is,  blest"  ? 
Does  not  the  disposition  of  the  human 


Arthur  and  Mary  15 

heart  to  brood  over  the  old  love's  loss 
appear  in  the  light  of  an  excessive  senti- 
mentality, rather  than  a  well-founded 
regret  ?  And  may  we  not  charge  up  to 
imagination  and  sentimentality,  rather 
than  to  real  suffering,  at  least  some  of 
our  unsatisfied  heart -longings  ? 

Does  it  not  also  follow  that  the  old  love 
is  no  better  as  an  asset  to  begin  house- 
keeping on  than  the  new  love,  and  that 
when  put  to  the  test  of  hard  times,  or 
misfortunes,  or  trials  of  faith,  it  would 
not  believe  more,  or  endure  more,  or 
suffer  more  ? 

But  let  these  things  pass  as  deductions 
which  might  be  made  from  some  lives, 
but  not  all;  for  "as  one  star  differeth 
from  another  in  glory,"  so  the  ways  of 
love,  like  the  ways  of  Divinity  whose 
attribute  love  is,  are  not  always  dis- 
cernible. Therefore  we  are  to  follow  the 
fortunes  of  Arthur  St.  John  and  Mary 
Blair  and  know  them  as  they  are,  not 
as  they  should  be. 


CHAPTER  III 

ALBERT   AND   ALICE 

A  LBERT  WARD  and  Alice  Wilmot 
**•  had  also  grown  up  in  our  little  city, 
and  were  intimate  friends  of  Arthur  St. 
John  and  Mary  Blair.  Albert  was  the 
oldest,  Arthur  the  next,  Mary  the  next 
after  Arthur,  while  Alice  was  the  youngest 
of  the  four. 

Albert  Ward  was  well  educated  for  one 
of  his  years,  and  his  aptitude,  steadiness, 
and  kindly  disposition  and  manner  had 
recommended  him  to  employment  with 
the  County  Bank,  where  close  application 
and  the  quickly  developed  faculty  of  do- 
ing the  right  thing  the  right  way  had 
given  him  rapid  promotion.  He  was 
tall  and  slender  and  rather  angular;  had 
a  swarthy  complexion,  and  thoughtful 
dark  eyes,  but  with  not  quite  enough 
light  in  his  face  to  be  called  handsome. 

16 


Albert  and  Alice  17 

Albert  Ward's  father  had  belonged  to 
the  old  regime  of  aristocratic  commercial 
travellers,  each  of  whom  carried  two 
porters,  and  had  a  good  time.  He  lived 
as  long  as  some  very  old  men,  but  it 
did  n't  take  him  as  long  to  do  it  by 
two  dozen  years  or  more.  He  plunged; 
he  speculated.  His  life  was  of  course  a 
disappointment;  his  death,  not  unex- 
pected. But  whatever  was  his  cata- 
logue of  faults,  it  is  quite  certain  that 
he  was  more  of  an  enemy  to  himself 
than  to  others. 

Albert's  mother  was  proud  and  grand, 
even  in  her  grief,  which  never  ended. 
She  never  believed  Mr.  Ward  had  a  fault 
or  a  failing,  although,  to  others,  her  dissi- 
pated life  and  very  looks,  advertised  the 
depths  of  downheartedness  into  which 
she  had  descended  with  him. 

Through  the  timely  good  offices  of 
others  she  had  saved  something  from 
the  wreck  of  their  fortunes,  and  was  now 
living  with  Albert  in  their  neat  little 
cottage  on  North  Street,  he  the  cyno- 
sure of  her  every  look  and  thought,  and 


i8  The  Teller's  Tale 

she  the  object  of  his  more  than  filial 
consideration. 

Alice  Wilmot,  perhaps,  had  more  to 
be  proud  of  than  any  one  of  the  others 
of  the  quartette  whose  fortunes  were 
so  early  interblended — a  disposition  of 
meekness,  a  heart  of  goodness,  and  a 
character  to  contemplate  with  increasing 
appreciation.  She  was  always  happy; 
not  in  seeking  happiness,  but  in  giving  it. 

In  playing  together,  it  was  Mary  who 
took  and  Alice  who  gave.  It  was  so 
with  toys  and  cakes  and  apples;  and 
even  with  sweethearts,  Mary  had  first 
choice,  but  Alice  was  none  the  less 
agreeable. 

It  thus  occurred,  in  the  seeming  dis- 
pensation of  love,  guided  by  the  will  and 
selfishness  of  Mary  Blair,  that  Albert 
Ward  was  allotted  to  Alice  Wilmot ;  and 
she  seemed  to  be  pleased  with  his  kind, 
big  self  walking  by  her  petite  side. 

Why  is  a  thing  of  beauty  a  joy  for- 
ever? Why  does  its  loveliness  increase, 
instead  of  passing  into  nothingness? 
Because  it  is  a  spiritual  quality,  indi- 


Albert  and  Alice  19 

visible  and  indestructible,  and  like  all 
spiritual  things,  increases  with  use  and 
cultivation.  Not  only  this,  but  all  who 
feed  upon  beautiful  things  become  beau- 
tiful themselves. 

With  bodily  food,  surfeiting  succeeds 
satisfaction,  and  the  lagging  appetite 
warns  the  physical  man  where  assimila- 
tion ends  and  indigestion  begins,  just  as 
conscience  warns  the  soul  against  the  in- 
ception of  sin;  but  there  is  no  limit  to 
the  capacity  of  the  heart  for  enjoying 
the  loveliness  of  beauty  and  the  ex- 
hilaration which  it  gives. 

But  how  shall  we  feed  upon  beauty, 
and  thereby  become  beautiful  in  word, 
thought,  and  deed,  and  have  our  souls 
lifted  up  into  an  atmosphere  of  ex- 
hilaration? It  is  simple  enough — by 
doing  beauty,  the  qualities  of  which  are 
most  perfectly  expressed  in  self-sacri- 
fice, the  essence  of  love. 

Our  supply  of  beauty  will  be  in  pro- 
portion to  the  sacrifice  we  have  made 
and  the  joy  we  have  given  to  others. 

We  shall  be  like  Alice  Wilmot — inde- 


20  The  Teller's  Tale 

pendent  of  those  extrinsic  agencies  of 
happiness  which  most  people  seek  and 
upon  which  they  depend  for  satisfaction. 

Certainly  there  are  outward  beauties 
formed  for  the  pleasure  of  the  eye;  but 
these  are  perishing.  Enduring  beauty 
belongs  to  our  intrinsic  selves — to  char- 
acter ;  and  although  manifesting  itself  in 
the  simple  doing  of  duty,  it  is  a  progres- 
sive virtue  and  reaches  its  highest  expres- 
sion only  when  we  have  gone  far  beyond 
our  recognized  obligations. 

With  the  light  of  such  a  presence  as 
Alice  Wilmot  to  walk  by  his  side,  it  is 
small  wonder  that  Albert  Ward's  rather 
dark  features  should  have  been  improved 
by  the  association. 

Under  such  circumstances,  any  man 
ought  to  have  acquired  enough  reflected 
spirituality  to  make  him  good,  and  with 
strength  of  will  and  purpose  he  should 
have  followed  up  the  advantages  of 
early  friendship  and  won  her  for  his  own. 


CHAPTER  IV 

LOVE'S   LABOR 

TN  spite  of  the  opportunities  and  en- 
*  vironments  of  youth  in  which  our 
attachments  are  formed,  it  is  true  that 
neither  the  course  of  true  love,  nor  the 
course  of  any  other  love,  ever  did  run 
smoothly.  It  is  an  examination  of  heart 
by  heart,  which  puts  the  affections  and 
character  upon  trial  before  sentiment 
and  judgment;  and  the  issues  involved 
are  life  and  death. 

And,  consciously  or  unconsciously, 
lightly  or  seriously,  this  labor  of  love  is 
carried  on  after  a  certain  age  by  every 
boy  and  girl,  man  and  woman,  with 
every  other  boy  or  girl,  man  or  woman, 
provided,  of  course,  that  all  parties  are 
even  remotely  available,  with  the  strug- 
gle becoming  more  intense  as  the  avail- 
ability increases. 

21 


22  The  Teller's  Tale 

Some  psycho-physiologists  claim  that 
the  brain-lobe  of  love  begins  to  develop 
at  the  age  of  about  thirteen  years ;  but  I 
doubt  if  they  have  ever  located  the  seat 
and  centre  of  love  force,  or  that  there 
is  any  rule  which  correctly  fixes  the  be- 
ginning of  its  manifestations. 

Such  rules  are  mere  speculations  like 
those  which  fix  the  beginning  of  reason, 
or  the  maturity  of  mental  or  physical 
power. 

Long  before  Mary  Blair  went  away  to 
Staunton  for  the  benefit  of  one  of  those 
splendid  colleges,  she  and  Arthur  had 
innocently  plighted  their  troth,  with  the 
expectation  that  they  would  some  day 
become  man  and  wife. 

Later  on  they  felt  the  seriousness  of 
the  matter  and  ceased  to  talk  of  the 
future ;  but  when  the  time  finally  arrived 
for  her  to  go,  and  they  were  waiting 
aside  from  the  crowd,  he  said:  "Mary, 
you  must  read  only  the  best  books,  and 
not  study  too  hard.  Have  plenty  of 
mountain  air  on  your  daily  bill  of  fare, 
and  come  back  to  us  rosy  and  strong." 


Love's  Labor  23 

"Of  course,  I'll  do  all  that,  Arthur, 
and  write  you  long  letters  besides.  I  am 
proud  of  my  little  banker.  Some  day 
we  '11  be  rich  and  happy." 

The  fast  mail  came  thundering  into 
the  station  trembling  under  the  weight 
of  compressed  air,  and  Arthur's  heart 
beat  time  to  the  revolutions  of  its  wheels 
as  they  bore  Mary  away  for  their  first 
separation,  while  strange  and  conflicting 
emotions  were  stirring  within  him — 
emotions  which  physical  force  could  not 
subdue  nor  moral  brake  control. 

"Rich  and  happy,"  he  repeated,  as  he 
watched  the  train  hurry  away  as  if  to 
meet  the  approaching  darkness,  already 
obscured  by  the  dust  and  smoke  behind. 
And  this  dust  and  smoke  seemed  emblem- 
atic of  the  cloud  of  distance  and  doubt 
which  was  coming  between  them. 

In  this  age  when  money  is  better  than 
men,  it  is  refreshing  to  see  a  young  heart 
shocked  at  the  suggestion  that  Cupid 
plays  second  fiddle  to  Croesus,  and  that 
happiness  is  measured  in  millions. 

These   were   days   long   since   passed 


24  The  Teller  s  Tale 

when  my  story  begins,  and  I  only  go 
back  for  a  glance  at  the  hopes  and  heart- 
aches of  the  springtime  of  life,  because 
their  contemplation  will  help  to  make 
and  keep  us  young,  and  fix  our  sym- 
pathies where  they  are  sometimes  needed. 

For  those  who  enjoy  such  reflections, 
a  glance  will  be  sufficient;  for  out  of 
their  experiences  they  may  easily  fill  in 
the  rest.  And  even  to  those  who  look 
upon  the  love  of  childhood  as  an  ephe- 
meral light,  having  neither  stability  nor 
form,  and  not  intended  to  prepare  us  for 
the  reality  yet  to  come,  this  glance  will 
not  seem  too  long. 

Albert  and  Alice  were  at  the  train  to 
see  Mary  depart,  and  they  and  Arthur 
walked  away  together. 

While  Mary  was  away  Albert  and  Alice 
were  passing  from  the  open  frankness  of 
childish  innocence  to  the  reserve  of  youth, 
and  they  were  taking  their  old  relation 
of  sweethearts  for  granted,  without  dar- 
ing to  re-pledge  themselves  according  to 
their  better  conception  of  what  that  re- 
lation would  mean  in  after-years. 


Love's  Labor  25 

The  bases  of  our  likes  and  dislikes  are 
not  developed  or  understood  in  child- 
hood; for  then,  in  our  simple-minded- 
ness and  innocent -heartedness,  one  little 
friend  may  be  our  sweetheart  as  well  as 
another.  And  Albert  and  Alice  began 
to  understand  that,  while  these  early 
attachments  are  not  to  be  lightly  broken 
off,  and  cannot  be  entirely  effaced,  the 
threads  of  affection  in  the  knot  of  man- 
hood and  womanhood's  true  love  are 
many,  and  can  be  bound  securely  to- 
gether only  in  the  experiences  which 
come  from  later  years. 

When  Mary  came  home  from  college 
Alice  had  completed  the  curriculum  at 
the  High  School,  but  was  prosecuting  her 
studies  in  music  preparatory  to  a  course 
at  Boston  later. 

So,  the  younger  and  lighter — shall  I 
say  brighter? — days  of  our  four  young 
people  had  passed  at  last.  Schools  were 
practically  finished;  apprentices  served. 
Work  at  the  bank  now  occupied  the 
greater  part  of  the  time  of  Albert  and 
Arthur,  the  one  as  teller,  the  other  as 


26  The  Teller's  Tale 

bookkeeper;  and  in  their  work  and 
walk  a  devotion  had  sprung  up  which 
won  for  them  the  title  "David  and 
Jonathan."  Mary  had  returned  from  a 
second  visit  to  Washington,  where  Alice 
was  her  appreciated  guest  for  quite  a 
while. 

They  had  all  been  out  into  the  world 
and  met  many  attractive  people  and 
seen  many  interesting  places;  and  a 
battle  of  mind  and  heart  was  stirring  in 
each  between  the  old  environment  and 
the  new  world  beyond,  the  old  ideas  and 
the  new,  the  old  attachments  and  the 
new,  as  to  which  should  exercise  the 
greater  influence  over  their  lives. 

It  is  true  that  they  lived  in  the  little 
city  which  had  been  their  home  from 
birth ;  but  their  vision  had  taken  in  the 
world  and  the  people  going  up  and  down 
in  it,  and  this  larger  view  of  life  was  a 
revelation  of  space  and  interest  beyond 
any  picture  of  childhood's  imagination. 
They  saw 

"The  wonders  of  the  world  and  all  the  things 
that  be." 


Love's  Labor  27 

It  has  come  down  to  us  from  a  former 
generation  of  strict  disciplinarians,  whose 
parental  authority  was  not  only  recog- 
nized, but  respected  and  revered,  that 

"Just  as  the  twig  is  bent, 
The  tree  's  inclined." 

But  now,  in  this  modern  day  of 
democracy  and  independence,  and  the 
iconoclastic  tendencies  which  are  their 
concomitants,  we  may  prophesy  only 
what  a  boy  or  a  girl  will  know — not  what 
they  will  do. 

The  four  had  that  large  measure  of 
happiness  which  belongs  to  youth  and 
the  rosy  view  with  which  youth  goes  out 
to  meet  the  future,  for  love's  labor 
offers  the  same  incentive  to  mind  and 
heart  then  that  ambition  and  duty  give 
them  both  in  riper  years. 

To  many  a  mind  have  the  blandish- 
ments of  society  set  at  naught  the 
teachings  of  childhood,  and  caused  them 
to  become  only  mocking  memories  in  the 
years  to  come. 

But  to   Mary   Blair  the   earnestness, 


28  The  Teller's  Tale 

honesty,  and  independence  of  character 
of  Arthur  St.  John  stood  out  in  marked 
contrast  with  the  horde  of  sycophants 
at  the  Capitol  of  the  Nation,  notwith- 
standing that  world  of  delight  in  which 
she  had  moved  above  and  beyond  him. 
And,  in  the  light  of  this  contrast,  she 
resolved  that  the  fashions,  follies,  and 
flatteries  of  the  new  life  should  not 
divorce  her  from  the  affections  of  the 
old. 


CHAPTER  V 

PASSION   TENDER   AND   TRUE 

IT  is  with  maturer  years  and  the  develop- 
ment of  character  that  we  have  the 
completed  growth  of  those  subtle  char- 
acteristics or  eccentricities  of  mind  and 
heart,  which  differentiate  one  person's 
taste,  judgment,  feeling,  estimation,  and 
appreciation,  from  another's,  and  which 
most  people  have  felt,  but  which  no  one 
has  yet  been  able  to  dissect  or  analyze. 

We  only  know  that  certain  persons  are 
alike  in  these  characteristics,  and  of  such 
we  say  the  one  is  the  affinity  of  the 
other;  that  they  are  in  accord;  and  as 
the  violin  string  across  the  room  is 
moved  by  the  vibrations  of  the  other 
string  with  which  it  is  attuned,  so  the 
hearts  of  such  persons  are  responsive,  the 
one  to  the  other.  By  their  union  they 
29 


30  The  Teller's  Tale 

promote  that  universal  harmony  which 
is  the  great  law  of  creation. 

It  was  for  His  own  glory  that  God 
instituted  marriage;  for  anything  which 
adds  to  the  harmony  of  the  universe, 
adds  to  the  glory  of  Him  who  made  the 
law  of  harmony. 

There  is  warning  here  for  those 
who  promote  discord  by  unions  which 
are  inharmonious,  and  which  therefore 
break  this  law  of  the  Lord.  Let  them 
beware!  Let  them  examine  them- 
selves! When  other  considerations  in- 
terpose, let  them  remember  that  the 
degree  of  harmony  which  is  to  exist 
between  them  depends  on  affinity — the 
cry  of  soul  for  soul,  such  as  we  observe 
in  the  bird's  call  for  its  mate,  or  the  cry 
of  the  young  child  for  the  love  and 
caresses  of  its  mother.  Let  each  of  us 
hearken  to  this  perfect  harmony,  while 
he  listens  in  his  lover's  life  for  the  echo 
of  his  own. 

Since  character,  not  the  person,  is 
what  we  love,  and  character  takes  on 
new  traits  in  passing  through  different 


Passion  Tender  and  True       31 

degrees  of  development,  is  it  safe  to 
form  tender  attachments  and  make  en- 
gagements to  marry  at  an  early  age? 
May  not  both  parties  to  the  contract 
have  reason  later  on  to  regret  the  step 
taken?  Marrying  in  haste  may  be  fol- 
lowed by  repenting  at  leisure. 

It  is  sad,  but  nevertheless  true,  that 
there  are  many  married  couples  who  are 
not  in  even  fair  accord.  (What  a  com- 
mentary on  me  that  the  dead  catgut 
which  the  virtuoso  strikes  with  his  bow 
should  be  better  than  I !) 

There  are  instances  of  so-called  love, 
in  which  the  parties  have  only  one,  or  at 
most  only  a  few,  strongly  developed 
affinities,  and  where,  in  other  respects, 
they  diverge  into  absolute  opposition. 
These  are  "crossed  in  love,"  and  un- 
happiness  is  certain  to  ensue  unless  good 
judgment,  and  forbearance,  and  will- 
power, and  charity  that  covereth  a 
multitude  of  faults,  shall  be  exercised  to 
extend  and  perfect  their  agreements,  and 
to  dwarf  and  eradicate  their  disagree- 
ments, so  that  the  one  may  develop  into 


32  The  Teller's  Tale 

beauty  and  harmony,  while  the  other 
may  disappear  altogether. 

Unfortunate  are  those  people  who, 
because  they  never  find  their  affinities, 
are  constrained,  in  honor,  not  to  marry 
at  all;  for  it  is  not  good  for  man  or 
woman  to  be  alone. 

More  unfortunate  are  they  whose  per- 
fect affinities  are  discovered  only  after 
they  have  united  with  imperfect  ones, 
or  who,  for  any  reason,  have  been  con- 
demned to  live  with  one  while  loving 
another. 

Most  unfortunate  of  all,  are  those 
couples  who  dwarf  and  dissipate  their 
love,  and  have  not  the  disposition,  good- 
ness, and  power  to  develop  it  again. 

Envied  above  any  of  these  are  they 
who 

"Have  never  met  and  never  parted, 
And  never  yet  been  broken-hearted  " — 

the  old  bachelor  and  the  ancient  maid, 
who  pine  not  for  the  coming  of  an 
affinity,  but  who  go  about  some  appointed 
work  of  useful  end,  to  find,  as  all  who  try 


Passion  Tender  and  True      33 

it  will  find,  that  duty  well  done  always 
receives  its  just  reward  and,  in  com- 
pensatory blessings,  makes  us  equal  in 
happiness  with  others. 

We  are  imperfect  creatures  at  best, 
and  our  imperfections  manifest  them- 
selves no  more  plainly  and  strongly 
anywhere  than  in  love  and  marriage. 
Many  of  us  banish  love  and  put  idols  on 
its  throne — society,  shekels,  sensuality, — 
which  not  only  fail  to  give  satisfaction 
while  they  rule  us,  but  when  they  are 
dethroned  (as  they  will  be,  sooner  or 
later)  the  heart  is  incapable,  in  its  own 
strength,  of  reconciling  itself  to  what- 
ever choice  has  been  made ;  and  unhappi- 
ness  follows,  as  it  always  has  followed, 
and  always  will  follow,  the  transgression 
of  the  law. 

Let  us  not  forget  that  "God  is  love"; 
that  love  in  the  human  heart  is  not  a 
little  thing  that  it  should  be  lightly  con- 
sidered in  the  courts  of  heaven,  even  if 
little  things  were  despised  up  there ;  and 
that  the  soul  by  sin  oppressed  cannot 
more  readily  find  mercy  before  its  God, 

3 


34  The  Teller's  Tale 

than  the  heart,  which  knows  not  its 
affinity,  can  obtain  direction  from  the 
same  never-failing  power. 

There  are  in  every  case  limitations  on 
the  ability  of  the  heart  to  judge  for  itself, 
just  as  there  are  on  the  mind  to  reach 
correct  conclusions,  and  the  failure  to  in- 
voke a  higher  power  for  this  purpose  is 
the  prime  cause  of  mismated  marriages 
and  their  train  of  unhappy  consequences. 

A  contrary  belief  would  put  God  out 
of  our  married  life,  notwithstanding  it  is 
by  Him,  according  to  His  Word,  that  we 
are  ' '  joined  together. ' '  When  this  Scrip- 
ture is  read  to  the  young  couple  so 
solemnly  by  the  minister,  do  they  sup- 
pose that  God  helps  them  at  the  mar- 
riage altar  only,  and  that  He  confirms 
there  a  choice  already  made  without  His 
sanction  and,  perhaps,  against  His  will  ? 


CHAPTER  VI 

MOTHER  AND    DAUGHTER 

MOTHERS  see  better  with  the  eyes 
of  love  than  children  do  with  their 
natural  eyes.  Mrs.  Wilmot  doubted 
whether  her  daughter  was  satisfied  to 
yield  her  love  to  Albert ;  so  she  asked  her 
about  this  one  day. 

"Mother,"  she  replied,  "Albert  and  I 
have  been  sweethearts  too  long  to  think 
of  giving  each  other  up  now;  and  then 
everybody  expects  us  to  love  each  other. 
Don't  you?  I  said  everybody;  but 
sometimes,  as  we  sit  or  walk  together  in 
the  evenings,  and  chat  about  current 
events  and  the  commonplace  things  we 
see  and  know,  I  feel  as  if  my  heart  were 
far  away;  and  I  sometimes  hear  him 
sigh  as  if  he  were  estranged  from  me  or 
felt  the  want  of  sympathy  between  us. 

35 


36  The  Teller's  Tale 

"But  surely  this  is  all  imagination. 
He  is  so  noble,  so  good,  so  true;  and  he 
and  Arthur  have  been  so  kind  and  faith- 
ful to  us  in  our  troubles.  Is  not  this 
uneasiness,  this  insufficiency,  only  a  mani- 
festation of  that  disposition  which  we  all 
have  to  find  fault  with  those  we  love  ?  I 
do  not  know ;  but  I  could  easily  bear  my 
own  feelings  were  I  but  able  to  answer 
the  demands  of  his  heart  on  mine. 

"Ever  since  our  childhood  Albert  has 
been  my  friend.  My  earliest  and  sim- 
plest wish  has  been  law  to  him.  At 
school  he  was  ready  to  take  my  part,  or 
to  supply  my  wants  before  I  really  knew 
them  myself. 

"He  carried  my  books  to  school  and 
gave  me  rare  fruits  and  confections ;  and 
when  I  was  sick  he  kept  fresh  flowers  by 
my  bedside. 

"And  he  was  so  thoughtful  and  careful 
in  showing  favors  that  no  one  teased  me 
or  seemed  to  question  his  right  to  give  or 
the  propriety  of  my  taking. 

"Sometimes  I  fear  that  I  am  yet  a 
spoiled  child,  and  that  the  bounty  of  his 


Mother  and  Daughter          37 

offerings  has  been  so  great  that  I  do  not 
appreciate  him  or  them  as  I  should." 

' '  My  dear,  I  should  be  pained  to  believe 
you  had  failed  to  bestow  gratitude  where 
it  belongs,  irrespective  of  love.  The  latter 
you  may  not  give,  except  as  your  heart 
shall  dictate ;  but  the  former  cannot  ever 
be  properly  withheld." 

"I  do  not  intend  to  be  ungrateful, 
mother,  but  I  do  wish  that  I  might  no 
longer  feel  indebted  to  Albert.  I  could 
then  test  my  love  separated  from  obliga- 
tion, and  know  whether  this  lack  of  sym- 
pathy comes  from  the  heart." 

"I  do  not  know  how  you  are  to  efface 
entirely  your  feeling  of  obligation,  my 
dear;  but  I  believe  you  will  have  an  op- 
portunity to  decide  the  whole  matter 
correctly  when  you  go  away  to  Boston; 
for  if  your  heart  does  not  call  for  his 
presence  you  may  know  that  there  is 
some  unseen  barrier  between  you. 

"It  may  be  that  his  efforts  to  please 
come  from  an  unconscious  desire  to 
bridge  a  barrier  which  his  heart  feels,  but 
which  his  mind  does  not  understand." 


38  The  Teller's  Tale 

' '  Then  I  am  glad  we  are  going  away.  I 
have  found  but  one  sentiment  of  his  which 
does  not  accord  with  mine — his  growing 
desire  for  wealth,  and  the  belief  he  seems 
to  have  that  it  could  bring  us  happiness. 

"You  know  I  have  never  cared  for 
money,  except  for  the  good  which  we 
might  do  with  it.  It  may  be  that  he  only 
cares  for  it,  especially,  as  an  offering  to 
me.  Some  day  he  may  find  that  the  love 
which  I  give  and  receive  must  be  without 
money  and  without  price. 

"  I  do  not  understand  my  perplexity  at 
all.  Albert  appears  to  be  almost  every- 
thing that  one  should  be,  and  my  mind 
can  discover  no  reason  why  he  should  not 
fill  my  life  with  satisfaction  and  help  me 
live  up  to  every  duty.  I  am  afraid  I 
shall  carry  to  Boston  the  perplexity  I 
feel  in  Willow  Springs." 

' '  There  is  but  one  way  out  of  it  all,  my 
dear.  You  should  examine  your  heart  as 
well  as  you  can,  going  to  God  in  prayer. 
It  is  He  who  guides  us  in  all  things,  if  we 
ask  Him,  giving  us  help  in  due  season 
according  to  our  needs." 


Mother  and  Daughter          39 

We  shall  see  hereafter  how  Alice's 
heart  did  respond  to  its  own,  and,  with 
her,  we  shall  learn  that  the  God-ap- 
pointed way,  though  it  lead  through  the 
Valley  of  Sorrows  and  lash  us  against  the 
gates  of  Death  itself,  is  always  the  best. 


CHAPTER  VII 

THE  COLONEL  AND  THE  CONGRESSMAN 

Colonel  Wilmot 

COLONEL  HARRY  WILMOT  was  a 
soldier  in  the  unfortunate  but  un- 
avoidable War  of  Secession,  having  taken 
up  arms  in  the  Southern  cause  imme- 
diately after  his  State  withdrew  from  the 
Union. 

Elected  captain  of  his  company, — the 
youngest  of  that  rank  in  the  regiment, — 
he  fought,  with  that  courage  and  forti- 
tude which  he  had  inherited  from  his 
forbears,  from  Manassas  to  Franklin; 
and  no  man  could  say  he  ever  fainted 
through  it  all  except  from  loss  of  blood, 
that  he  ever  faltered  when  the  time  to 
charge  arrived,  or  that  he  ever  failed 
to  find  the  hottest  part  of  the  battle- 
ground. 

40 


Colonel  and  Congressman      41 

Two  days  before  the  battle  of  Franklin 
he  was  raised  to  the  rank  of  colonel.  But 
he  made  his  last  charge  on  that  memora- 
ble day,  receiving  two  desperate  wounds, 
either  of  which  would  have  disabled  him 
from  further  service  on  the  field. 

Though  not  of  a  towering,  brilliant  in- 
tellect, Colonel  Wilmot  possessed  one  of 
those  rugged,  well-balanced,  persistent 
minds  which  never  refuses  to  acknow- 
ledge its  error,  and  which  never  knows 
when  to  stop  thinking  until  the  goal  of 
understanding  is  reached. 

This  was  especially  true  of  his  later 
life ;  for  when  at  the  close  of  the  war,  he, 
like  all  true  patriots,  set  about  repairing 
his  fallen  fortunes,  and  helping  to  restore 
the  peace  and  prosperity  of  the  country, 
it  was  most  natural  that  his  physical 
condition  should  have  made  him  a 
thinker,  rather  than  a  laborer. 

To  this  circumstance,  we  of  Willow 
Springs  became  indebted  for  the  ad- 
vanced position  our  community  took  as 
an  educational,  industrial,  business  cen- 
tre. It  was  his  mind  that  saw  what  we 


42  The  Teller's  Tale 

needed;  it  was  his  enterprise  that  told 
us  how  to  get  it;  it  was  his  judgment 
that  guided  us  to  success  afterward. 

Colonel  Wilmot  was  an  illustration  of 
the  fact  that  modesty  is  not  an  attribute 
of  negative  characters  only,  and  that  it  is 
a  quality  becoming  to  man  as  well  as 
woman;  for,  with  all  his  unassuming 
manner,  when  the  opportune  time  came 
he  was  found  not  only  possessed  of 
positive  convictions,  but  aggressive  in 
stating  them  to  others. 

Not  only  this,  but  his  life  and  work 
showed  that  a  philosopher  need  not  be  a 
recluse,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  he  may 
be  an  active  participant  in  the  public 
and  private  duties  which  lie  about  him. 
This  is  true.  Unless  he  does  test  his  own 
philosophy  in  the  school  of  example  he 
may  gradually  diverge  from  the  line  of 
practicality,  and  become  the  exponent  of 
theories  which  no  one  ever  will  or  ever 
can  reduce  to  successful  use. 

Under  Colonel  Wilmot 's  instruction, 
we  followed  three  rules  in  building  and 
operating  our  enterprises:  We  calcu- 


Colonel  and  Congressman      43 

lated  the  cost  and  expected  profits;  we 
selected  the  best  materials  and  ma- 
chinery, regardless  of  price;  and  we 
employed  the  most  capable  workmen, 
regardless  of  salary. 

Rarely  accepting  any  office  or  position 
himself,  and  forcing  the  desire  for  place 
and  power  to  sink  into  the  one  purpose 
of  common  success,  he  was  enabled  to 
avoid  any  jealousies  or  envyings,  to  fore- 
stall dissensions,  and  to  miss  the  shafts 
of  malice  which  are  hurled  at  the  heads 
of  many  able  men. 

While  this  disposition  kept  his  mind 
free  from  selfish  ambitions,  the  achieve- 
ment of  which  can  be  of  no  lasting  good 
to  any  one,  it  did  not  prevent  him  from 
being  the  reserve  power  upon  which  we 
relied  in  every  emergency. 

What  a  delightful  condition!  If  all 
men  could  be  so  blessed  there  would  be 
no  hindrance  to  the  mind.  There  would 
be  nothing  to  impede  the  free,  independ- 
ent, and  undisturbed  progress  of  thought 
in  its  dominion  over  the  universe. 

Under   such   circumstances,    it   is   no 


44  The  Teller's  Tale 

wonder  that  Colonel  Wilmot  was  in  the 
habit  of  going  to  the  bottom  of  every 
question,  and  not  only  banishing  the 
ordinary  hindrances  to  success,  but  of 
pushing  out  beyond  the  ken  of  his  fellows 
and  reducing  to  practice  those  things 
which  before  had  been  in  the  domain 
of  theory;  of  exploding  useless  and 
illogical  theories  when  they  stood  in 
the  way  of  progress;  and  of  believing 
whatever  he  found  to  be  true,  whether 
based  upon  a  preconceived  theory  or 
not. 

As  an  original  thinker,  he  had  no  pa- 
tience with  the  idea  that  there  should  be, 
in  the  business  methods  of  men,  any 
more  than  in  their  legal  relations,  such  a 
thing  as  a  wrong  without  a  remedy,  or 
an  error  without  a  truth  to  work  its  elimi- 
nation. And  to  him,  this  became  a  vision 
which  he  followed  with  the  same  sense  of 
interest  and  duty  that  causes  the  disciples 
of  ^Esculapius  to  command  that  there 
shall  be  neither  rest  nor  recreation  until 
the  time  shall  come  when  there  is  an 
adequate  antidote  for  every  poison,  a 


Colonel  and  Congressman      45 

cure  for  every  pain,  a  solace  for  every 
physical  woe,  and  no  disease  without  its 
perfect  remedy. 

Prior  to  the  war  the  enterprise  and 
material  thought  of  the  South  had  been 
enthralled  by  the  system  of  negro 
slavery  not  only  because  that  system 
gave  us  riches  without  enterprise,  but 
because  the  capacity  of  the  negro  was 
not  equal  to  the  labor  involved  in  mak- 
ing enterprises  successful. 

The  time  having  arrived  for  the  South 
herself  to  be  free,  as  well  as  her  negroes, 
and  to  diversify  and  increase  her  business 
intelligently,  she  needed  men  like  Colonel 
Wilmot.  We  shall  find  that  the  North 
also  needed  him,  that  he  was  thinking  for 
the  whole  country,  and  that  the  whole 
country  has  cause  to  bestow  gratitude 
upon  him  ungrudgingly. 

This  was  the  father  of  Alice  Wilmot — 
planter,  manufacturer,  banker,  man-of- 
affairs,  thinker,  Christian. 

A  director  in  the  County  Bank,  the  in- 
terests of  Colonel  Wilmot  there  were  two- 
fold: besides  looking  after  the  interests 


46  The  Teller's  Tale 

of  the  Bank,  he  took  a  fatherly  concern 
in  the  young  men  employed  there — their 
fidelity,  their  proper  aspirations,  and  their 
attachments. 

But,  above  all,  it  was  in  his  family — 
that  unit  of  good  government,  founded 
on  authority,  obedience,  and  love — that 
he  exhibited  those  refinements  of  con- 
sideration, feeling,  speech,  and  devotion, 
which  made  him  the  idol  of  a  wife  and 
daughter,  whose  tender  affections  fol- 
lowed him  into  the  world  and  made  evil 
seem  an  impossibility  to  him. 

It  is  no  wonder  that  Alice  loved  him 
more  dearly,  and  confided  in  him  more 
fully,  as  the  years  came  on;  and  that  she 
found  greater  pleasure  in  cultivating  her 
mind  and  body  under  his  direction,  and 
in  taking  diversion  in  the  ways  pointed 
out  by  him  and  her  mother,  than  she 
could  possibly  have  discovered  along  the 
dubious  paths  where  the  world  gives 
pressing  invitation. 

Mr.  Blair 
Congressman  Blair  was  in  most  par- 


Colonel  and  Congressman      47 

ticulars  as  unlike  Colonel  Wilmot,  as  one 
reputable  citizen  could  be  unlike  another. 

He  did  not  understand  either  of  the 
two  policies  of  modern  business,  one  of 
which  is  based  upon  negro  labor,  the 
other  upon  white  labor. 

We  may  say,  in  passing,  that  those  who 
pursue  one  of  these  policies  find  great 
profit  in  managing  the  negro  through  his 
inclinations  and  necessities,  and  grow 
rich  upon  his  toil,  their  policy  being  the 
ante-bellum  idea  modified  to  meet  the 
changed  relations  between  the  white  man 
and  the  negro.  Those  who  pursue  the 
other  policy  believe  in  developing  the 
country  by  the  use  of  intelligent  white 
labor  in  the  operation  of  modern  ma- 
chinery ;  and  they  set  up  the  proposition 
that,  by  manufacturing  our  raw  mate- 
rials at  home  and  husbanding  our  re- 
sources here,  we  can  send  the  finished 
products  abroad  multiplied  many  times 
in  value,  and  make  them  the  foundation 
of  a  material  prosperity — in  banking,  in- 
surance, manufacture,  intensified  agricul- 
ture, electricity,  architecture,  etc. — far 


48  The  Teller's  Tale 

beyond  our  present  conceptions  of  what 
prosperity  means. 

Inheriting  a  taste  for  politics  from  his 
ancestors,  and  having  the  same  culti- 
vated in  the  not  over-ratified  atmosphere 
of  post-bellum  election  and  law-making 
practices,  Mr.  Blair  was  enamored  of 
nothing — not  even  his  profession,  the 
law — except  as  it  helped  to  shoulder 
him  upward  and  onward  to  political 
preferment. 

And  that  was  perfectly  natural,  since 
business  and  politics  do  not  any  more 
mix  than  the  plodding  methods  of  ac- 
quiring a  competency  harmonize  with  a 
gambler's  chances  or  a  schemer's  near- 
cuts  to  wealth. 

Mr.  Blair  had  his  eye  on  a  seat  in  Con- 
gress before  accepting  the  position  of 
judge,  and  it  is  said  that  he  cast  not  a 
few  anchors  toward  the  goal  of  his  ambi- 
tion while  presiding  with  dignity  over 
the  court. 

How  often  is  it  that  office-holding  de- 
generates into  money-making,  and  the 
ambitious  mind  veers  from  the  paths 


Colonel  and  Congressman      49 

of  intellectuality  to  those  of  absolute 
sordidness!  This  comes  from  the  desire 
of  the  man  of  small  means  to  move  in 
the  style  of  his  wealthy  official  associate. 
And  in  this  tendency  democracy  might 
well  establish  her  protest  against  the 
growing  plutocracy  of  the  times. 

Having  once  observed  the  inequality  of 
station  which  often  results  from  wealth 
rather  than  brains,  it  does  not  take  the 
person  of  ordinary  individuality  long  to 
become  a  convert  to  the  idea  that  money 
is  everything.  And  when  he  does,  he  is 
not  apt  to  be  over-scrupulous  as  to  the 
way  he  will  add  to  his  holdings. 

The  fact  that  Mr.  Blair  was  a  judge, 
then  a  congressman,  never  offered  itself 
to  Arthur  St.  John  as  a  reason  why  he 
should  love  Mary  Blair — for  he  had  loved 
her  long  before.  Nevertheless,  the  bare 
fact  of  the  relationship  makes  Mr.  Blair 
of  interest  to  us;  for  an  interesting  girl's 
father  would  be  interesting,  though  he 
were  no  more  than  that  necessary  evil,  a 
man,  not  a  congressman. 

Frankly  speaking,   a  congressman  is 


50  The  Teller's  Tale 

ordinarily  only  a  politician;  and  we 
must  admit  that  a  politician  does  not 
represent  that  development  of  moral  and 
intellectual  life  which  should  make  his 
position  enviable  or  his  daughter  proud 
above  her  fellow-women. 

In  fact,  the  average  politician  is  a  pre- 
tender, standing  for  measures  he  does 
not  believe  in,  and  promising  reforms  he 
knows  to  be  impossible  of  accomplish- 
ment. He  wins  popular  favor  by  assuming 
originality  of  thought  and  independence 
of  speech,  while,  in  reality,  he  sizes  up 
his  crowd  and  tells  them,  in  language 
usually  borrowed  from  others,  what  he 
knows  they  already  believe,  caring  not  a 
whit  whether  it  be  true  or  false. 

More  than  this,  the  prevailing  and 
successful  type  of  politician  is  worse  than 
a  mere  trimmer;  he  is  a  self-centred, 
self-seeking  egoist,  whose  knowledge  is 
superficial  and  theoretical,  rather  than 
thorough  and  practical;  and,  having  to 
play  so  many  roles  and  be  all  things  to 
so  many  people,  he  generally  closes  out 
his  career  without  playing  any  part  very 


Colonel  and  Congressman      51 

well,  and  without  having  been  very  much 
to  anybody. 

A  stranded  ship,  without  wind  or  wave, 
is  no  more  a  wreck  than  a  politician  with- 
out a  job.  Knowing  in  advance  the  help- 
lessness of  this  estate,  it  is  small  wonder 
that  the  occupation  does  not  tend  to 
the  cultivation  of  that  independence  of 
thought  and  character  which  are  neces- 
sary attributes  of  the  statesman — a 
character  with  whom  the  politician  is 
oftentimes  confused. 

Many  congressmen  are  politicians.  A 
few  are  statesmen.  And  as  we  proceed 
with  this  narrative  we  hope  to  be  able  to 
place  Mr.  Blair  in  the  class  to  which  he 
belongs,  if  we  have  not  already  done  so. 

At  the  time  our  story  begins,  it  was 
said  that  he  wished  to  give  up  his  seat  in 
Congress  and  take  from  his  party  (then 
in  power)  an  important  post  as  foreign 
minister. 


CHAPTER  VIII 


THE    BLAIRS   AT   HOME 


business  venture,  being  cap- 
italized  with  money,  is  expected  to 
produce  money.  In  other  words,  it  is 
expected  to  pay  dividends  by  the  repro- 
duction of  its  capital  ;  and  its  success  de- 
pends upon  its  'ability  to  do  so. 

Matrimony,  being  capitalized  with 
love,  is  expected  to  produce  love  ;  and  its 
success  depends  upon  its  ability  to  de- 
clare dividends  out  of  its  earnings. 

And,  as  dollars  and  cents  are  the  high- 
est exponents  of  money,  so,  human  beings 
are  the  highest  exponents  of  love.  Gener- 
ally speaking,  therefore,  matrimonial 
alliances  which  do  not  conform  to  the 
rule  of  reproduction  by  declaring  regular 
dividends  in  kind,  are  failures.  And  this 
suggests  the  answer  to  much  that  has 
52 


The  Blairs  at  Home  53 

been  written  on  the  question  as  to 
whether  or  not  marriage  is  a  failure. 

But  some  marriages  which  are  matri- 
monial in  form,  are  not  so  in  fact;  and, 
as  matrimonial  unions,  they  are  failures 
from  the  beginning:  Not  being  capital- 
ized with  love,  they  do  not  produce  love. 
For  we  can  only  reap  what  we  have  sown. 

This  suggests  to  me  a  glance  into  the 
home  of  the  Blairs,  that  we  may  see  how 
they  lived  and  moved  and  had  their  being. 

Mrs.  Blair  was  a  daughter  of  the  Old 
South,  having  been  born  early  enough  to 
taste  the  sweets  of  plenty,  and  to  catch, 
in  memory  and  tradition,  an  impression 
of  the  sumptuousness  of  that  former 
time ;  which  circumstance,  combined  with 
the  fact  that  she  was  an  only  daughter, 
filled  her  otherwise  beautiful  character 
with  a  selfishness  calculated  to  destroy 
contentment  and  weaken  some  of  the 
other  fruits  of  a  Christian  spirit. 

With  these  inclinations  to  begin  with, 
it  is  no  wonder  that  she  should  have 
wedded  a  man  who  looked  through 
golden  glasses  with  silver  rims,  the  focus 


54  The  Teller's  Tale 

of  which  was  always  fixed  on  the  al- 
mighty dollar  and  the  ambitions  and 
pleasure  that  go  with  money.  And,  as 
an  exponent  of  love — a  dividend  paid  out 
of  their  accumulated  affections, — it  is 
no  wonder  that  Mary  Blair,  their  only 
child,  should  have  exhausted  their  capi- 
tal, surplus,  and  undivided  profits. 

In  the  rearing  of  children,  we  sow  seeds 
of  self-sacrifice;  and,  in  their  lives  and 
character,  if  our  work  has  been  well  done, 
we  reap  a  harvest  of  love  an  hundred-fold 
greater  than  the  seeds  we  have  sown. 

In  the  case  of  the  Blairs,  the  wonder  is 
that  the  Lord  did  not  take  from  them  the 
talents  so  little  cultivated.  Probably  He 
did.  Perhaps  He  accomplished  this  pur- 
pose in  Mary.  For  if  she  was  lovable, 
and  they  were  not,  was  she  not  as  far 
from  them  as  night  is  from  day,  as  vice  is 
from  virtue,  as  right  is  from  wrong  ? 

Since  Mr.  Blair  had  no  son  to  inherit 
his  name,  and  take  up  the  struggle  for 
honors  where  he  should  leave  off,  it  was 
but  natural  (as  already  hinted  at)  that  he 
should  be  all  the  more  anxious  that  his 


The  Blairs  at  Home  55 

daughter  should  make  her  position  secure 
by  wedding  a  man  already  able  to  confer 
a  great  name,  as  well  as  fortune,  upon 
her.  And  in  this  ambition  Mrs.  Blair 
shared  equally  with  him. 

Congress  was  still  in  the  midst  of  the 
long  session;  but  Mr.  Blair,  having  been 
assured  of  his  appointment  to  a  foreign 
mission,  and  not  being  therefore  a  can- 
didate for  re-election,  was  allowing  the 
duties  of  his  membership  to  rest  lightly 
upon  him.  He  liked  society  more  than 
ever  now,  for  the  reason  that  society  was 
liking  him  more,  in  view  of  the  new  honors 
which  were  coming  his  way. 

While  a  member  of  the  lower  house  is 
an  important  personage  at  home,  Wash- 
ington does  not  take  him  seriously,  for 
the  very  good  reason  that  he  is  so  numer- 
ous that  there  is  not  seriousness  enough 
to  go  round.  Therefore,  in  Washington, 
he  is  only  a  person. 

But  a  minister,  like  a  senator,  is  differ- 
ent. He  is  a  personage;  and  if  he  does 
not  get  the  good  things  it  is  because  he 
refuses  them  outright. 


56  The  Teller's  Tale 

Mr.  Blair  was  at  home  for  the  purpose 
of  accompanying  Mrs.  Blair  and  Mary 
back  to  Washington,  where  he  wished  to 
have  them  remain  for  the  balance  of  the 
session. 

In  the  living  room  at  home,  father  and 
mother  were  painting  a  picture  of  Wash- 
ington and  its  pleasures,  not  only  for 
Washington's  sake,  but  with  reference  to 
its  advantages  as  a  preparatory  school 
for  the  fetes  which  the  family  were  to 
enjoy  in  the  social  life  of  a  minister. 

"Father,  I  do  not  see  how  I  am  to  go; 
I  have  accepted  a  place  on  the  entertain- 
ment committee  for  the  bankers'  meeting 
next  month.  It  will  be  the  swellest  time 
we  've  ever  had  in  Willow  Springs,  with 
all  those  nice  visitors  here." 

"Daughter,  how  can  you  be  so  short- 
sighted? Just  as  a  nickel  placed  against 
the  eye  would  obscure  a  mountain  of 
gold,  so  you  allow  a  little  collection  of 
bankers  here  in  this  State  (most  of  whom 
borrow  their  money  from  New  York), 
with  their  country  manners,  to  shut  out 
the  splendid  company  of  wealth  and  re- 


The  Blairs  at  Home  57 

finement  awaiting  you  and  your  mother 
in  Washington.'* 

"But,  father,  I  like  these  people — 
their  'country  manners,'  and  all.  We 
have  never  had  a  State  meeting  here 
whose  representatives  were  not  delight- 
ful guests ;  and,  as  I  am  fond  of  bankers 
anyway,  I  am  looking  forward  to  this 
meeting  with  much  anticipation.  Be- 
sides, not  having  yet  put  away  childish 
things,  I  am  still  fond  of  nickels." 

"But  would  you  not  enjoy  the  large 
social  life,  after  you  had  once  gotten  out 
of  the  trend  of  this  little  existence  you 
have  down  here?  For,  granting  that 
these  people  are  all  that  they  try  to  be, 
or  hope  to  be,  that  is  not  much.  This 
meeting  will  only  last  a  few  days,  and 
then  even  your  nickel  is  denied  you." 

"Mr.  Blair,  do  you  not  understand 
that  Mary  is  to  go  with  Arthur  to  the  bank- 
ers' banquet ;  that  he  is  the  toy  of  child- 
hood to  which  she  clings — the  "nickel" 
that  is  here  before  the  bankers'  meeting, 
and  will  be  after  it,  and  all  the  time? 
Just  where  she  should  have  gotten  so 


58  The  Teller's  Tale 

much  sentiment,  I  am  sure  I  do  not  know, 
unless  by  an  atavism  whereof  the  other 
Blairs  have  no  record.  But  it  is  true; 
and  I  believe  she  was  under  the  same 
spell  of  sentimentality  when  she  had  us 
promise  long  ago  that  we  would  instruct 
her,  but  not  cross  her,  in  the  matter  of 
love  and  marriage." 

Mary  had  stepped  out  just  before  her 
mother  began  speaking;  and  when  she 
came  in  again  it  was  arranged  that  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  Blair  should  go  on  to  Washing- 
ton then,  and  that  Mary  should  remain 
in  Willow  Springs  as  the  guest  of  Alice 
Wilmot  until  after  the  meeting  of  the 
bankers,  and  then  join  them  in  Wash- 
ington. 

"Love  in  a  cottage"  may  be  an  iri- 
descent dream;  but  it  is  one  which  the 
world  has  believed  in  so  long  that  the 
habit  is  now  incurable,  even  with  people 
otherwise  indifferent. 


CHAPTER  IX 
THE  BANKERS'  MEETING 

WILLOW  SPRINGS  has  long  been 
known  as  the  "convention  city" 
of  this  portion  of  the  State,  and  all  the 
organized  bodies,  whether  social,  indus- 
trial, educational,  secular,  or  religious, 
have  partaken  of  the  open-door  hos- 
pitality of  her  people. 

In  May,  -  — ,  the  State  Bankers'  As- 
sociation paid  us  their  first  visit,  the 
invitation  of  our  bankers  and  other  busi- 
ness men  having  been  accepted  at  the 
annual  meeting  the  year  before. 

The  occasion  was  a  notable  one,  on 
account  of  the  wealth  and  business  acu- 
men of  the  members  present,  the  tre- 
mendous interests  they  represented,  the 
important  character  of  the  questions  dis- 
cussed, and  the  business  transacted;  also 

59 


60  The  Teller's  Tale 

fertile  splendid  entertainment,  public  and 
private,  accorded  them  as  our  guests. 

We  have  to  shut  our  eyes  to  a  bad 
thing  sometimes ;  or,  at  least,  the  best  of 
us  do  so,  which  is  some  argument  in  its 
favor.  I  am  reminded  of  this  now  by  re- 
calling the  fact  that,  although  ours  is, 
conspicuously,  a  "dry"  town,  the  local 
committee  had  what  they  denominated 
a  "high -ball"  corner,  fitted  up  in  a  con- 
venient place,  the  refreshments  wherein 
were  not  the  least  appreciated  of  our 
hospitalities. 

One  of  the  evenings  of  their  stay  with 
us  was  given  over  to  a  banquet,  where 
brilliant  toasts  were  said,  an  attractive 
menu  was  served,  and  music  and  mirth 
delighted  mind  and  heart;  and  happy 
indeed  were  the  strong  men  and  hand- 
some women  who,  conscious  of  their 
strength  and  beauty,  vied  with  one  an- 
other in  the  exchange  of  those  clever 
conceptions  which  are  the  condiments  of 
thought  that  make  intellectual  inter- 
course a  feast  of  reason  and  a  flow  of  soul. 

Albert  and  Arthur  were  conspicuously 


The  Bankers'  Meeting         61 

the  most  alert  and  popular  of  the  young 
men  who  directed  the  dispensation  of 
hospitality,  while  Alice  and  Mary  were 
the  bright  particular  stars  in  the  galaxy 
of  gracious  young  girls  whose  presence 
was  a  benediction  to  the  assembly. 

And  of  all  the  people  of  every  calling, 
who  have  been  entertained  by  us,  I  think 
it  safe  to  say  that  none  have  ever  evi- 
denced such  genuine  pleasure  as  beamed 
from  the  countenances  of  our  men  of 
finance  on  that  evening. 

Nor  do  I  believe  I  have  ever  seen  even  a 
frolicsome  set  of  youngsters  more  over- 
joyed than  they  were  the  day  we  drove 
them  across  Town  Creek  to  Big  Lake, 
and  gave  them  an  old-fashioned  barbecue 
of  mutton  and  beef,  with  broiled  carp 
fresh  from  the  water. 

As  I  observed  their  delight,  and  en- 
tered into  their  merry-making,  I  could 
not  help  but  conclude  that  their  jovial 
light -heartedness  could  be  accounted  for 
in  the  wonderful  mental  relaxation  which 
had  come  to  them  in  laying  aside  their 
business  for  the  occasion;  and  that  their 


62  The  Teller's  Tale 

demeanor  and  feelings  not  only  showed 
how  great  had  been  the  relaxation,  and 
how  great  is  the  ordinary  nervous  strain 
under  which  they  work  and  live,  but  the 
need  they  have  for  periods  of  recreation 
and  rest. 

Not  only  this,  but  it  also  occurred  to 
me  that,  if  possible,  their  methods  of 
business  should  be  so  modified  as  to 
make  their  work  less  trying  on  the  ner- 
vous forces. 

The  knitted  brow,  the  drawn  muscles, 
and  the  serious  expression  are  evidences 
of  trouble  in  conception,  worry  in  details, 
and  weariness  in  watching  and  waiting, 
all  of  which  show  there  is  in  the  ma- 
chinery of  the  business,  somewhere  or 
somehow,  a  friction  between  the  things 
to  be  done  and  the  mental  forces  neces- 
sary to  their  accomplishment  which 
ought  to  be  overcome.  For  the  ma- 
chinery of  human  endeavor,  when  prop- 
erly set  up,  ought  to  be  as  frictionless  as 
the  machinery  constructed  of  wood  and 
steel. 

The  feature  of  the  meeting,  however, 


The  Bankers'  Meeting         63 

which  excited  the  interest  of  those  pres- 
ent, as  well  as  the  interest  of  the  entire 
State  afterwards,  even  more  than  our 
skill  for  entertainment,  was  the  paper 
read  by  Colonel  Wilmot  at  the  final  ses- 
sion. This  paper  was  entitled  "  How 
Shall  We  Know  ? ' '  and  dealt  with  a  ques- 
tion to  which  he  had  given  serious  thought, 
even  for  months  before  the  request  came 
from  the  Association's  committee  asking 
that  he  should  prepare  a  paper  on  some 
"live"  topic  to  be  chosen  by  himself. 

We  may  say,  in  passing,  that  there  is 
not  the  least  reason  to  doubt  that  the 
subject  presented  fulfilled  the  require- 
ments. 

The  paper  contained  a  discussion  of 
that  feature  of  the  banking  business 
which  enables  the  subordinate  officers 
and  employees  to  exercise  dominion  over 
the  assets  and  liabilities  of  the  bank. 
For  instance,  the  teller,  as  the  receiver  of 
deposits,  may  by  himself  alone,  and  with 
the  bare  touch  of  a  pen,  increase  the 
bank's  liabilities  to  an  indefinite  extent. 

The  teller  receives  the  money  deposited 


64  The  Teller's  Tale 

and  he  pays  out  the  money  withdrawn. 
He  may  enter  all  the  money  he  receives 
on  the  books  of  the  bank,  or  he  may  leave 
off  some  entries  and  put  the  money  in 
his  pocket;  and  the  cashier  and  others 
will  know  what  the  books  show,  but  not 
what  the  pocket  contains.  The  teller  is 
expected  to  make  the  books  show  all  he 
has  received,  to  put  it  all  together  in  the 
bank,  and  not  put  any  of  it  in  his  pocket ; 
but,  in  this  case,  as  in  others,  it  is  the 
unexpected  that  frequently  happens ;  and 
many  banks  know,  to  their  sorrow,  that 
they  have  become  liable  for  large  sums 
of  money  which  they  never  used  and 
never  saw, — for  they  are  as  liable  for  the 
money  the  teller  puts  in  his  pocket  as 
they  are  for  that  which  is  shown  on  the 
books  and  placed  in  the  bank's  vault. 

The  person  who  pays  the  money  to  the 
teller  and  takes  his  receipt  for  it,  does  not 
know  whether  his  deposit  is  recorded  in 
the  books  of  the  bank  or  not.  If  it  is,  the 
other  people  in  the  bank  will  know  it,  but 
if  it  is  not,  they  will  not  know  it,  and  not 
count  it  among  the  liabilities  of  the  bank. 


Colonel  Wilmot  reading  his  paper  at  the  bankers'  meeting. 


The  Bankers'  Meeting         65 

By  failing  to  enter  sums  deposited  and 
appropriating  them  to  his  own  use,  or 
holding  them  in  his  possession,  a  teller 
may  personally  accumulate  large  sums  of 
money.  When  checks  against  these  un- 
entered deposits  are  presented  he  may 
pay  them  from  this  held-out  fund,  and  in 
this  way  escape  detection;  though  he 
usually  makes  abstractions  from,  or  with- 
holds from  the  books,  only  such  deposits 
as  he  has  every  reason  to  believe  will  not 
be  drawn  on  soon  by  the  depositors. 

Not  only  may  deposits  be  withheld 
from  the  books  and  the  vault  when 
received,  but  the  teller,  bookkeeper,  or 
other  subordinate  may  so  manipulate 
the  books  or  papers  in  his  possession  or 
under  his  control,  either  by  himself  or  in 
conjunction  with  another  employee  or  an 
outsider,  as  to  withhold  collections  or 
withdraw  deposits  unlawfully. 

Take  the  bookkeeper,  for  instance. 
When  a  check  is  presented  to  the  teller, 
it  is  he  who  must  say  whether  it  is 
good.  How  easy  it  is  for  him  to  call  a 
check  good,  which  is  not  good,  allow  a 


66  The  Teller's  Tale 

confederate  to  draw  money  on  it,  charge 
this  to  some  inactive  account,  and  risk 
the  chances  of  making  a  fortune  in  specu- 
lation before  the  likelihood  of  discovery. 
And,  like  the  teller,  if  this  account  be- 
comes active  and  the  depositor  draws 
upon  it,  his  check  is  paid,  and,  if  need  be, 
charged  to  some  other  inactive  account. 
Under  the  present  system,  this  might  be 
kept  up  without  detection  indefinitely, 
for  the  reason  that  the  subordinates 
know  the  depositors  and  their  habits, 
while  the  officers  do  not  know  the  de- 
positors and  are  not,  systematically, 
brought  in  touch  with  them. 

The  note  teller,  the  collector,  the  mes- 
senger boy — all,  have  abundant  oppor- 
tunities of  the  same  or  similar  kind ;  and 
so  frequently  do  defalcations  occur  that 
the  world  expects  to  hear,  ever  and 
anon,  that  some  teller,  or  one  of  the 
others  mentioned,  has  been  playing  the 
races,  bucket  shops,  fast  society,  etc., 
for  months,  and  even  years,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  bank  he  is  supposed  to 
serve;  and  we  refuse  to  be  startled  at 


The  Bankers'  Meeting         67 

the  head-lines  when  these  things  are  an- 
nounced in  the  papers. 

The  paramount  difficulty  with  the 
business  is  that  there  is  no  way  by  which 
a  bank  can  ascertain  at  any  given  time 
just  what  its  condition  is — just  what  it 
owes, — for  the  reason  that  its  stock- 
holders' committee  can  only  examine  its 
own  books,  which  will  not  show  its  true 
condition  when  some  deposits  have  never 
been  entered  on  the  books  and  others 
have  been  unlawfully  withdrawn,  both  of 
which  sums  are  unknown  quantities. 

The  banks  therefore  need  some  rule, 
custom,  or  law,  by  which  a  committee  of 
the  stockholders  can  ascertain  the  en- 
tered and  unentered  deposits,  the  law- 
fully and  the  unlawfully  withdrawn 
deposits,  the  assets  and  liabilities  of  all 
kind,  and  thus  know  the  condition  of  the 
bank  as  completely,  as  accurately,  as  the 
merchant  or  manufacturer,  or  other  busi- 
ness man,  may  know  his  condition,  where 
there  is  no  one  but  himself  to  increase 
liability  by  signing  or  endorsing  notes 
or  papers.  And  this  is  not  a  question 


68  The  Teller's  Tale 

of  trusting  our  fellowmen,  so  much  as  it 
is  the  question  of  being  able  to  ascertain 
whether  or  not  we  have  trusted  wisely. 

In  order  that  the  stockholders  may 
know  their  bank's  real  condition,  they 
must  be  brought  face  to  face  with  all  the 
people,  both  debtors  and  creditors,  who 
sustain  business  relations  with  the  bank; 
but  as  the  unentered  deposits  belong  to 
people  whose  names  are  not  on  the  books 
and  are  unknown  to  the  stockholders; 
and,  further,  since  it  is  impossible  to  have 
personal  interviews  with  all  those  whose 
names  do  so  appear,  on  the  same  day  or 
otherwise,  with  the  view  of  ascertaining 
if  their  accounts  be  stated  as  they  un- 
derstand them,  Colonel  Wilmot  declared 
that  the  only  way  to  reach  every  actual 
and  possible  depositor  or  other  creditor, 
and  every  debtor,  would  be  a  law  making 
a  published  statement  of  the  bank's  con- 
dition binding  on  all  interested  parties, 
unless  they  should  report  to  the  commit- 
tee of  the  bank,  for  correction,  within  a 
given  time,  any  errors  that  might  be 
found  in  such  statement. 


The  Bankers'  Meeting         69 

In  this  connection,  Colonel  Wilmot 
pointed  out  the  practice  under  the  law 
of  publishing  notices  in  the  papers  to 
ascertain  who  are  the  creditors  of  a  de- 
ceased person's  estate,  and  he  did  not 
think  it  more  important  to  get  such  in- 
formation in  that  case,  than  in  the  case 
of  a  bank  while  it  is  living.  For  the  in- 
tegrity of  the  bank  is  the  foundation 
of  the  community's  business,  and  in  its 
keeping  are  lodged  the  fortunes  of  a 
multitude. 

We  observe,  in  passing,  that  by  the 
fullest  use  of  banks  of  deposit  for  the 
safe  keeping  of  our  funds  and  the  con- 
venience of  business,  and  the  conse- 
quent use  of  bank  checks  for  paying  our 
bills  at  home  and  abroad,  we  may  trans- 
act at  least  ninety-nine  one-hundredths 
of  the  business  of  the  world  without  actu- 
ally handling  any  money.  This  enables 
us  to  do  our  business  on  a  hundredth 
part  of  the  money  we  would  employ  if 
there  were  no  banks.  It  enables  the 
money  we  have — any  given  volume — to 
do  ninety-nine  times  the  service  or  work 


70  The  Teller's  Tale 

it  could  do  if  there  were  no  banks,  and  its 
working  value  is  therefore  and  thereby 
enhanced  ninety -nine  times. 

Since  this  economy  in  the  use  of  actual 
money  enables  the  proprietor  and  the 
employer  to  have  more  work  done  and, 
practically,  furnishes  more  money  with 
which  to  pay  labor,  banks  and  banking 
are  found  to  touch  the  lives  of  more 
people  than  any  other  institution,  except 
the  Church,  and  to  be  benefactors  to 
every  man  in  every  walk  of  life. 

This  being  the  case,  and  the  safety  of 
the  bank  being  assured,  we  are  under  a 
business,  as  well  as  a  moral,  obligation  to 
give  the  bank  our  fullest  support. 

We  make  progress  in  some  matters 
rapidly,  breaking  away  from  ancient 
rules  and  methods,  or  modifying  them 
according  to  the  demands  of  justice, 
while  in  other  matters  we  hold  to  the  old 
rules  and  methods  absolutely,  even  when 
modification  would  appear  as  the  essen- 
tial and  necessary  thing. 

According  to  the  established  rule,  the 
teller  in  the  employ  of  the  bank,  being 


The  Bankers'  Meeting         71 

the  agent  of  the  bank,  binds  the  bank 
for  the  safe-keeping  and  return  of  all  the 
deposits  received  by  him,  no  matter 
whether  he  is  faithful  to  the  bank  or  not, 
because  he  is  placed  there  by  the  bank 
for  the  purpose  of  receiving  deposits. 

This  is  the  rule,  and  a  proper  rule ;  but 
there  is  no  reason  why,  by  notices  prop- 
erly given,  the  depositor  should  not  be 
required  to  make  his  initial  deposit  only 
with  the  knowledge  of  the  officers  of  the 
bank. 

It  is  also  a  reasonable  limitation  on  the 
rule  to  say  that  the  bank  is  to  be  bound 
only  with  the  distinct  understanding  that 
it  shall  have  the  right  to  have  the  acts 
of  the  teller  and  other  employees  inquired 
into,  at  stated  times,  and  the  accounts 
made  by  them,  and  kept  by  them,  with 
depositors  and  others,  reconciled  and  ad- 
justed; such  reconciliation  to  be  made 
by  a  committee  of  stockholders  on  proper 
notices  and  publications. 

The  interests  of  the  banking  busi- 
ness require  these  modifications  of  the 
rule  stated:  the  interests  of  the  public 


72  The  Teller's  Tale 

demand  them,  and  the  common-sense 
and  judgment  of  men  everywhere  will  ap- 
plaud them  as  the  most  important  busi- 
ness reforms  that  have  taken  place  at 
any  time. 

Colonel  Wilmot  said  that  watchfulness 
offered  no  solution  of  the  difficulty;  for 
if  it  were  possible  for  an  officer  or  a 
director  to  be  present  and  witness  the 
counting  of  every  dollar  that  falls  on  the 
deal  board,  such  an  exhibition  of  espion- 
age and  distrust  would  be  apparent  to 
the  customer  on  the  other  side  of  the 
wicket  and  destroy  his  confidence.  Be- 
sides, even  an  officer  or  director  goes 
wrong  sometimes. 

Under  the  present  system  it  is  neces- 
sary for  the  officers  to  be  watchful  and 
vigilant  every  moment  of  the  business 
hours,  and  it  is  this  high  tension  of  watch- 
ing, coupled  with  the  knowledge  that 
vigilance  vouchsafes  no  absolute  protec- 
tion, that  undermines  the  banker's  health 
and  makes  him  old  before  his  time. 
Some  have  innocently  imagined  that  the 
banker's  worry  was  his  loans,  his  bills 


The  Bankers'  Meeting         73 

payable,  or  his  fear  of  burglaries;  but 
not  so.  He  may  reduce  the  considera- 
tion of  these  things  to  steady,  honest 
work;  and  work  never  kills. 

Colonel  Wilmot  laid  bare  the  fact  that 
there  was  not  only  no  definite  way, 
under  custom  or  the  law,  by  which  the 
owner  of  a  bank  could  ascertain  its  true 
condition,  but  that  the  environments 
were  such  as  to  tempt  employees,  young 
and  old,  into  habits  of  extravagance, 
speculation,  defalcation,  and  ruin,  for 
the  reason  that  the  acts  of  dishonesty 
which  occur  in  any  business  or  trust  are 
in  proportion  to  the  value  of  the  things 
entrusted  to  the  employees,  and  the 
facility  or  ease  with  which  concealment 
of  the  wrong  can  be  made. 

The  prevailing  system  of  banking  is 
indeed  a  manufactory  of  its  own  peculiar 
brand  of  vice,  and  a  tempter  of  weak 
humanity;  for  very  few  peculations 
are  begun  with  the  intention  of  perma- 
nently depriving  the  bank  of  the  money 
taken,  but  to  conceal  the  taking,  use 
it  for  profit,  and  return  it  or  replace  it 


74  The  Teller's  Tale 

afterwards  without  loss — reference  being 
had,  of  course,  to  the  wrong-doings  of 
trusted  employees,  especially  the  young, 
and  not  to  hardened  criminals  who  break 
through  and  steal. 

Colonel  Wilmot  pleaded  for  improve- 
ment, for  approaching  the  ideal  as 
nearly  as  possible.  He  admitted  that  the 
banks  might  go  on  indefinitely  in  their  un- 
satisfactory methods,  for  people  like  to  be 
humbugged — up  to  a  certain  point.  But 
this  is  no  consolation  to  the  banks  when 
they  are  being  humbugged  themselves. 

Colonel  Wilmot  did  not  advocate  the 
adoption  of  any  rule  or  the  passing  of 
any  law  for  the  benefit  of  the  banks,  and 
to  enable  them  to  answer  the  important 
question,  unless  the  same  should  be  a 
manifestly  just  one — just  to  the  public 
who  deposit  their  money,  as  well  as  to 
the  stockholders  who  invest  theirs;  not 
that  such  rule  or  law  should  be  tested  by 
the  standard  of  perfectness,  but  rather 
upon  the  inquiry:  Does  it  guarantee  the 
greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number? 
This  question  being  answered  in  the 


The  Bankers'  Meeting         75 

affirmative,  it  should  stand,  although,  in 
some  instances,  not  because  of  the  rule 
or  law,  but  because  of  nonconformity  to 
it,  harm  may  befall  a  few. 

In  the  following  chapter  I  give  Colonel 
Wilmot's  paper,  omitting  preliminary 
matters  and  some  of  the  things  already 
commented  on  very  fully  herein. 

While  I  fear  the  lay  mind  does  not 
anticipate  much  pleasure  in  reading  this 
paper,  I  wish  to  assure  such  readers  to 
the  contrary;  for  the  contents  are  not 
only  of  surpassing  interest  to  everybody, 
but  they  concern,  vitally,  the  fortunes  of 
those  whose  lives  we  are  following  along 
the  road  of  destiny, — Albert,  Arthur, 
Mary,  Alice. 

We  sometimes  think  the  dinner  too 
long,  too  substantial,  or  a  little  dry,  and 
the  dessert  a  little  hard  to  overtake. 
But  the  prudent  diner-out  will  carefully 
and  patiently  eat,  remembering  that  the 
first  courses  not  only  give  muscle  and 
life,  and  capacity  to  enjoy  the  dessert, 
but  that  waiting  makes  it  all  the  better 
when  we  do  catch  up  with  it. 


CHAPTER  X 

HOW   SHALL   WE    KNOW?1 

IT  is  a  familiar  saying  worthy  of  ac- 
ceptation, that  vice  runs  ahead  of 
virtue;  for  the  devil  is  smart  as  well  as 
mean.  But  this  is  no  reason  why  we 
should  allow  vice  to  remain  secure  in 
any  advantage  which  it  has  gained.  We 
should  be  as  wise  as  serpents.  If  we  keep 
moving  on  the  strongholds  of  evil- 
driving  the  devil  from  post  to  pillar— 
we  may  be  at  his  final  chaining  one  of 
these  days  and  escape  him  altogether 
thereafter. 

Just  at  present  vice  is  decidedly  in  the 

1  For  the  benefit  of  those  who  are  not  interested  in 
the  banking  question  which  this  publication  under- 
takes to  answer,  but  who  will  read  the  book  for  the 
story  alone,  the  author  wishes  to  state  that  this  chapter 
and  the  chapter  entitled  "The  Law"  may  be  omitted 
without  any  loss  to  them. 

76 


How  Shall  We  Know?         77 

lead,  as  a  multitude  of  instances  do 
abundantly  witness,  and  it  would  take 
the  eye  of  a  prophet  joined  to  a  heart  of 
faith,  to  see  the  millennium  even  in  the 
distant  future.  As  bankers,  we  are  con- 
cerned most  about  that  form  of  vice 
which  we  feel  most — which  affects  most 
our  business, — namely,  the  embezzle- 
ment of  our  funds  by  trusted  employees. 
In  fact,  whether  we  are  all  willing  to 
admit  it  or  not,  there  is  abiding  with  us 
a  feeling  of  insecurity  because  we  have 
found  no  adequate  protection  against 
such  occurrences. 

We  make  our  physical  positions  perfect 
with  vaults,  combinations,  time-locks, 
etc.;  and  our  methods  of  examination 
are  as  good  as  can  be  devised  under  the 
present  banking  system  of  rules  and 
laws.  In  most  businesses  the  present 
system  would  be  sufficient;  but  not  so 
with  us.  We  are  not  only  beset  by  foes 
without,  but  by  those  within,  as  well — 
persons  who  occupy  subordinate  posi- 
tions, so-called,  but  from  whom  the 
"big  fellows"  of  the  concern  must  obtain 


78  The  Teller's  Tale 

their  information  as  to  the  real  condition 
of  things.  The  head  of  the  bank  is  not 
master  of  the  situation.  The  subordi- 
nates not  only  know  the  condition  of  the 
bank  but  practically  make  its  history. 

A  teller  or  bookkeeper  may,  by  the 
scratch  of  a  pen,  obligate  us  to  pay  thou- 
sands of  dollars  which  may  not  become  a 
part  of  our  assets,  and  of  which  there 
may  not  be  a  record;  and  we  may 
become,  and  be,  insolvent  while  the  ex- 
aminer or  auditing  committee  is  report- 
ing us  prosperous  and  happy.  By  a  mere 
manipulation  of  figures  in  our  portfolios, 
an  unlawful  disappearance  of  the  funds 
held  in  trust  by  us  may  be  made  to  ap- 
pear as  lawful :  seemingly,  our  liability  is 
cancelled,  but  in  reality  it  is  the  same. 
It  is  the  asset  which  has  disappeared 
altogether. 

This  is  an  anomalous  condition,  but 
one  we  should  face  fairly,  intelligently, 
and  in  a  practical  way.  We  should  act 
upon  that  which  we  do  know :  that  those 
in  positions  of  trust  with  us  do  take  ad- 
vantage of  their  ability  to  keep  us  ignor- 


How  Shall  We  Know?         79 

ant  of  the  true  condition  of  the  bank; 
and  they  do  this  to  our  hurt  and  the  hurt 
of  our  customers.  That  they  have  done 
so  at  every  point  of  the  compass,  and  in 
every  section  of  every  country  on  earth, 
falsified  entries,  unentered  credits,  and 
vaults  emptied  of  thousands,  do  most 
positively  attest;  and  this  they  will 
continue  to  do  until  a  plan  is  adopted 
by  which  every  possible,  effectual  act  of 
every  officer  of,  and  every  worker  in,  the 
bank  may  be  regularly  reviewed  by  his 
fellows  and  by  the  bank's  committee  of 
stockholders. 

Sometimes  our  ignorance  has  been 
taken  advantage  of  in  one  way,  some- 
times in  another;  and  generally  as  each 
fraud  brought  to  light  another  plan  of 
the  defrauder,  some  remedy  has  been 
found  which  would  prevent  the  thing's 
being  done  in  that  particular  way — so 
easy — again;  but  up  to  this  time  no 
plan  has  been  suggested  by  which  the 
stockholders  or  anybody  else  may  know 
absolutely  just  what  the  bank's  liabilities 
are. 


8o  The  Teller's  Tale 

What  if  the  National  examiner  or  the 
State  examiner  does  come  around  occa- 
sionally and  go  over  our  cash,  our  notes, 
and  our  exchanges,  and  check  up  by 
correspondence  the  amount  of  money  we 
have  in  other  banks?  What  does  this 
avail,  even  if  we  admit  that  he  can  check 
up  our  assets,  since  he  does  not  and  can- 
not ascertain  and  test  by  comparison  or 
correspondence,  the  amounts  we  owe  our 
hundreds  of  depositors  and  others  ? — no ; 
not  even  the  amounts  which  appear  on 
the  books,  to  say  nothing  of  those  sums 
which  may  not  be  entered  on  the  books. 
He  does  not  therefore  test  the  work  of 
the  bank  as  a  whole,  much  less  the 
separate  work  of  the  several  employees 
therein. 

What  would  we  think  of  the  architect 
or  contractor  who,  in  placing  his  founda- 
tion, should  ascertain  the  weight  of  the 
building,  but  neglect  to  test  the  capacity 
of  the  earth  to  support  this  weight  ?  His 
foolishness  would  not  be  unlike  that  of 
the  bank  examiner  or  bank  committee, 
in  the  one-sided,  half -proving  test  which 


How  Shall  We  Know?         81 

they  would  make.  The  one  may  result 
in  cracked  walls  and  fallen  buildings ;  the 
other,  in  financial  disaster. 

Realizing  that  if  we  can  answer  the 
question  propounded  by  the  subject  of 
this  paper,  we  are  safe,  while  otherwise 
there  is  no  safety,  I  have  undertaken  in 
this  paper  to  open  up  a  plain  and  prac- 
tical method — an  entirely  feasible  way— 
by  which  this  information  can  be  had  at 
a  very  small  annual  expense,  and  the  lia- 
bilities and  general  condition  of  banks 
and  banking  institutions  of  all  kind  ac- 
tually and  legally  determined. 

We  are  at  present  working  wholly  on 
the  faith  we  have  in  the  integrity  of  our 
fellowmen,  which  is  very  good  when 
there  is  integrity;  but  what  if  there 
should  not  happen  to  be  integrity,  and 
stability,  and  strength  of  character  suffi- 
cient to  stay  them  in  the  daily  and  hourly 
temptation  which  becomes  the  besetting 
sin?  Is  it  our  purpose  to  go  forward, 
progressing  in  the  business  of  banking, 
which  is  yet  in  its  infancy?  If  so,  how 
much  farther  can  we  go  in  the  dark? 

6 


82  The  Teller's  Tale 

I  know  it  is  as  impossible  to  stand  still 
in  the  banking  business  as  in  the  others. 
We  must  advance  or  recede.  We  cannot 
advance  unless  we  overcome  the  one 
difficulty  that  stands  in  the  way  of  every 
bank  on  earth.  It  will  destroy  us  unless 
we  destroy  it.  This  is  true  for  two 
reasons  at  least:  (i)  The  fact  that  funds 
can  be  taken,  and  the  taking  concealed 
from  the  officers,  is  known  to  every  bank 
employee  in  the  world,  which  knowledge 
is  to  them  both  a  suggestion  and  a  temp- 
tation to  use  the  bank's  funds  for  un- 
lawful purposes;  (2)  this  knowledge  has 
also  travelled  to  the  reading  public,  and 
the  intelligent  depositor  knows  that  his 
deposit  may  not  be  held  safely,  not- 
withstanding the  integrity  of  the  man- 
agement. 

It  is  impossible  that  such  knowledge 
should  fail  to  have  its  influence  against 
the  continued  and  increasing  use  of  the 
banks  by  the  public.  For  whatever  may 
be  said  of  the  many  employees  who  have 
been  faithful  with  the  millions  entrusted 
to  them,  and  who  have  never  betrayed 


How  Shall  We  Know?         83 

a  trust,  our  experience  and  observation 
teach  us  that  no  amount  of  confidence  is 
equal  to  the  feeling  which  conies  from 
absolute  knowledge.  And  we  know  that 
every  person's  efforts  to  do  right  may  be 
strengthened  by  the  knowledge  that  his 
every  act  will  be  reviewed  by  others. 
We  know  human  nature  too  well.  We 
know  the  desire  for  wealth  which  comes 
to  the  poor  man  who  handles  thousands 
for  the  rich  daily,  as  well  as  the  greed  of 
the  rich  for  more.  We  know  the  easy 
stages  by  which  the  honest  man  takes 
the  journey  along  the  road  of  extrava- 
gance, speculation,  defalcation,  and  ruin. 

As  long  as  there  is  a  tempter,  men  will 
fall  into  temptation;  and  our  falling  is 
most  likely  when  there  is  an  opportunity 
to  conceal  the  wrong.  "Opportunity  (to 
take  and  conceal)  makes  the  thief."  If 
we  add  to  this  the  fact  that  the  wrong  to 
be  done  promises  the  gratification  of 
some  strong  natural  desire,  like  greed,  the 
temptation  becomes  almost  irresistible. 

Shall  we  continue  to  handle  our  neigh- 
bor's money  in  this  wise  ?  Have  we  the 


84  The  Teller  s  Tale 

heart  to  repeat  that  prayer  "Lead  us  not 
into  temptation,"  when  we  are  daily  ex- 
posing our  fellowmen  to  the  greatest  of 
temptations  ?  That  is  what  we  are  doing 
—exposing  them  to  temptations,  I  mean; 
for  no  doubt  many  of  us  omit  the  prayer 
altogether. 

I  repeat  again,with  emphasis,  that,  after 
a  close  study  of,  and  much  practical  ex- 
perience with,  the  business  operations  of 
a  bank  of  deposit,  I  am  convinced  that 
there  is  now  no  certain  means  employed 
by  the  officers  and  auditing  committees 
by  which  they  may  ascertain  the  bank's 
legal  liabilities  as  incurred  by  their  au- 
thorized agents.  I  refer  especially  to  the 
work  of  the  tellers  and  bookkeepers,  who 
control  the  initial  sources  of  liability. 

The  plan  I  propose  for  giving  this 
knowledge  to  the  owners  of  the  bank  is 
a  twofold  one,  imposing  duties  on  the 
bank's  committee  and  on  the  public  who 
deal  with  the  bank.  I  would  bring  the 
stockholders,  their  committees,  and  higher 
officials,  in  contact  with  the  depositors 
and  other  customers  of  the  bank,  so  that 


How  Shall  We  Know?         85 

each  should  know  that  the  books  of  the 
bank  and  the  books,  or  other  evidences 
of  debt,  in  the  hands  of  the  customers, 
are  in  accord.  I  would  put  a  stop  to  the 
way  the  teller  and  bookkeeper  have  of 
"playing  the  middle  against  the  two 
ends,"  because  in  such  a  game  the  ad- 
vantage is  always  with  the  middle. 

But  how  shall  they  know  this?  How 
shall  it  be  done? 

It  is  a  matter  which  must  be  handled 
carefully  and  with  delicacy,  at  first, 
since  the  depositor  must  not  be  im- 
pressed with  the  idea  that  there  is  any 
doubt  (and  there  should  be  none)  as  to 
the  correctness  of  his  account  as  recorded 
on  the  books  of  the  bank;  and  he  will 
not  be  so  impressed,  provided  the  sit- 
uation and  method  are  properly  laid  be- 
fore him. 

My  plan  is  this :  Let  the  bank  have  the 
following  printed  at  the  head  of  the  page 
of  the  pass-book  in  which  the  first  entry 
is  made: 

"It  is  a  rule  of  this  bank  to  ascertain 
and  fix,  at  stated  times,  definitely  and 


86  The  Teller's  Tale 

exactly,  its  legal  liabilities;  and,  with 
this  end  in  view,  it  will  publish,  from 
time  to  time,  detailed  accounts  of  every 
character  of  its  business,  omitting  the 
names  of  its  depositors  and  other  credit- 
ors, as  well  as  its  debtors,  but  using  a 
number  to  correspond  with  each  item  or 
account.  Such  publications  will  be  made 
for  the  purpose  of  giving  notice  to  all 
persons  concerned,  in  order  that  they 
may  have  their  accounts  adjusted  and 
reconciled  in  case  the  sums  set  opposite 
their  publication  numbers  do  not  agree 
with  the  balances  shown  by  their  pass- 
books and  other  evidences  of  account. 
Your  account  number  in  the  publica- 
tions to  be  made  will  be  -  — . 

"Your  attention  is  especially  called  to 
the  fact  that  this  bank  will  not  correct, 
or  be  responsible  for,  errors  in  your  ac- 
count unless  complaint  be  made  to  the 
publication  committee  of  the  bank 
within  thirty  days  from  the  completion 
of  the  publication  showing  an  error. 
Publications,  until  further  notice,  will  be 
made  in  the once 


How  Shall  We  Know?         87 

a  week  for  four  successive  weeks,  and  at 
least  eight  times  in  each  year. 

"Do  NOT  TAKE  THIS  BOOK  OUT  WITH- 
OUT GOING  TO  THE  PRESIDENT  OR  CASHIER 
AND  HAVING  HIM  SIGN  THIS  NOTICE  AND 
GIVE  YOU  A  PUBLICATION  NUMBER,  FOR 
THIS  MUST  NOT  BE  DONE  BY  ANY  OTHER 
PERSON. 

Cashier." 

When  the  teller  first  arranges  the  pass- 
book and  writes  the  depositor's  name  in 
it,  I  would  have  him  give  a  publication 
number  to  the  account  and  ask  the  de- 
positor to  step  back  to  the  cashier's  desk 
and  have  his  name,  signature,  and  num- 
ber recorded  for  future  publication.  The 
same  rule  should  be  observed  when  it  is 
a  time  certificate  of  deposit,  the  giving  of 
a  promissory  note,  or  any  other  transac- 
tion. The  publication  number  should 
be  one  that  would  easily  identify  the 
account  to  both  the  depositor  and  the 
committee  of  the  bank. 

In  addition  to  the  above,  I  would  re- 
quire the  customers  to  sign  statements 
at  least  once  a  year  showing  that  a 


The  Teller's  Tale 

given  publication,  already  completed, 
correctly  states  their  relations  to  the 
bank,  naming  in  each  case  what  that  re- 
lation is.  These  should  be  written  by  the 
customer,  so  that  they  might  be  com- 
pared with  his  authorized  signature  on 
file  with  the  bank.  We  would  then  have 
an  actual,  as  well  as  legal,  reconciliation 
between  the  books  of  the  bank  and  the 
books  of  the  depositor. 

The  pass-book  ought  to  be  balanced 
once  a  month,  and  an  additional  rule 
should  be  adopted  and  printed  therein 
requiring  the  depositor  to  have  it  so 
balanced,  and  to  exhibit  it  to  the  cashier 
at  that  time. 

The  publications  should  also  state  that 
they  are  made  for  the  purpose  of  recon- 
ciling accounts  and  other  business  mat- 
ters between  the  bank  and  those  who 
have  any  business  relations  whatever 
with  it.  It  should  again  warn  customers 
of  the  necessity  of  responding  to  the  no- 
tices whenever  differences  are  observed 
to  exist;  and  it  should  warn  the  public 
that  if  there  are  depositors  or  customers, 


How  Shall  We  Know?        89 

other  than  those  whose  numbers  appear 
in  the  published  reports,  they  must  come 
forward  and  make  their  claims  known  to 
the  committee  within,  say,  sixty  days, 
and  that  a  failure  to  come  forward  will 
bar  their  claims. 

There  is  every  reason  to  believe  the 
courts  would  decide  that  the  notices 
given  the  bank's  customer  by  publica- 
tion would  be  sufficient  to  prevent  his  re- 
covering from  the  bank  after  a  given 
time,  provided,  of  course,  the  bank  had 
really  lost  anything  by  the  customer's 
failure  to  make  his  claim  in  time.  Cer- 
tain it  is  that  sufficient  legislation  could 
be  had  to  enforce  reasonable  rules  along 
the  lines  indicated,  so  as  to  protect  the 
bank  against  all  claims  not  propounded 
within  a  given  time,  whether  there  was 
actual  notice  to  the  customer  or  not. 

Independent  of  the  law,  as  it  exists,  or 
as  it  might  be  passed  for  the  protection  of 
the  banks  in  enforcing  such  rules,  every 
customer  would  observe  with  care  the 
published  notices,  and  thus  the  facts 
themselves  would  be  known  and  the 


go  The  Teller's  Tale 

rights  of  all  parties  understood  and  pro- 
tected. There  would  be  no  excuse  for 
ignorance  of  the  true  condition  of  the 
bank,  both  as  to  assets  and  liabilities; 
the  committee  who  checked  up  the  busi- 
ness and  the  published  notices  would  be 
certain  of  the  facts  certified  to,  and  this 
certainty  would  give  a  feeling  of  security 
to  them  which  would  be  imparted  to 
others. 

With  the  adoption  of  this  plan  and  the 
same  put  into  general  practice,  I  believe 
there  would  be  given  to  the  business  of 
banking,  not  only  for  banking's  sake, 
but  for  security's  sake  as  well,  such  an 
impetus  as  it  has  never  felt  before,  and 
all  the  money  of  the  country  would  be 
kept  in  banks  and,  practically,  all  the 
business  would  be  done  through  them. 

On  the  other  hand,  without  the  abso- 
lute knowledge  which  such  a  plan  would 
give,  the  banks  cannot  keep  up  the  con- 
fidence which  now  exists.  They  are 
bound  to  lose  some  of  the  ground  already 
gained.  They  will  do  this  even  where 
the  bank  is  small  and  there  are  but  few 


How  Shall  We  Know?        91 

changes  made  in  its  clerical  force  in  the 
course  of  several  years.  But  it  will  be 
especially  true  where  the  bank  is  a  large 
one  and  requires  the  employment  of 
many  persons;  because  the  customers 
of  such  an  institution  are  beginning  to 
understand  that  they  are  not  only  at 
the  mercy  of  the  large  number  of  people 
employed  therein,  but  of  all  the  people 
who  may  be  so  employed  from  time  to 
time. 

But  if  we  know  the  president  and 
cashier,  in  whom  we  have  confidence,  and 
we  know  their  knowledge  to  be  such  that 
no  serious  wrong  can  be  done  and  cov- 
ered from  their  sight ;  and  if  we  know  that 
the  work  of  the  president  and  cashier, 
and  of  the  whole  bank,  is  carefully  re- 
viewed by  a  committee  of  the  stock- 
holders, whose  findings  are  proven  and 
corrected  by  publications,  and  made 
binding  on  the  world,  we  are  absolutely 
secure  in  dealing  with  the  institution; 
and  we  will  soon  find  this  out. 

We  hear  a  good  deal  at  bankers'  con- 
ventions about  confidence  being  the 


92  The  Teller's  Tale 

foundation  of  business.  Nevertheless, 
when  we  go  to  the  banker  at  his  office 
and  apply  for  a  loan,  security  is  invari- 
ably demanded;  and  this  leads  me  to 
conclude  that  confidence  is  meant  for 
the  depositor,  while  security  is  the  proper 
thing  for  the  banker. 

Since  confidence  is  the  only  assurance 
the  depositor  has  in  dealing  with  the 
bank,  just  as  it  is  practically  all  the  as- 
surance the  bank  has  in  dealing  with  its 
employees,  ought  we  not  to  cast  up  this 
confidence  account  occasionally  to  see 
what  it  has  cost  us? 

In  conclusion,  I  will  say  that,  from  the 
banker's  standpoint  at  least,  confidence 
is  not  the  foundation  of  the  banking 
business,  but  is  only  a  part  of  the  super- 
structure thereof.  Down  below  it  are 
integrity,  the  possession  of  wealth,  and 
the  ability  to  use  wealth  as  capital  in  the 
production  of  more  wealth. 


CHAPTER  XI 

COLONEL  WILMOT  AND  THE  BANKERS 

THE  reading  of  the  paper  aroused 
unusual  interest.  The  statements 
and  arguments  made  in  it  were  generally 
acknowledged  to  be  true  and  sound,  ex- 
cept that  some  of  those  who  joined  in 
the  discussion  contended  that  it  was  un- 
wise to  further  advertise  the  weakness  of 
their  position  on  the  question  raised,  a 
weakness  which  they  claimed  to  be  in- 
herent in  the  nature  of  the  business,  and 
which  could  be  minimized  by  methods 
already  employed  by  up-to-date  institu- 
tions, but  which  could  not  be  cured  by 
any  possible  means.  Said  they:  " If  you 
intimate  to  any  depositor,  or  any  would- 
be  depositor,  that  there  may  be  mis- 
takes made,  and  that  publications  may 

93 


94  The  Teller's  Tale 

be  necessary  to  discover  and  correct  the 
same,  or  that  for  any  reason  there  is  the 
remotest  doubt  as  to  his  ability  to  with- 
draw his  money  at  any  time,  you  need  not 
expect  to  gain  or  retain  his  patronage. " 

The  great  majority  of  those  at  the 
meeting,  however,  agreed  with  Colonel 
Wilmot,  and  maintained  that  the  dis- 
tribution of  news  and  the  dissemination 
of  learning  were  becoming  too  general 
among  the  masses  to  warrant  the  belief 
that  their  ignorance  and  credulity  could 
be  played  upon  by  pretensions  of  safety 
in  methods  and  practices  known  to  be 
unsafe,  even  if  the  interests  of  the  banks 
demanded  that  they  should  be  deceived; 
and  that  the  many  recent  and  extensive 
losses  by  banks  from  the  dishonesty  of 
officers  and  employees,  as  published  by 
the  daily  press,  were  much  stronger  indi- 
cations of  weakness  than  the  admissions 
which  the  bankers  themselves  would 
make ;  furthermore,  that  it  would  be  far 
better  to  provide  a  remedy  for  this  weak- 
ness at  once  than  to  allow  a  knowing 
public  to  magnify  the  dangers  to  them 


Colonel  Wilmot  and  the  Bankers    95 

and  to  conclude,  from  the  silence  and  in- 
activity of  the  bankers  themselves,  that 
there  was  no  remedy. 

Attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that 
the  banks  and  bankers  themselves  were 
much  more  interested  in  the  question 
than  the  depositors,  for  the  reason  that 
the  losses  of  a  bank  always  fall  on  the 
stockholders  first,  and  that  even  in  the 
larger  defalcations  which  had  occurred 
the  losses  of  the  depositors  were  not  total. 

The  consideration  of  the  question  so 
engrossed  the  minds  of  the  members  that 
some  other  appointed  subjectswere wholly 
neglected,  with  a  result  that  a  committee 
was  raised,  with  Colonel  Wilmot  as  its 
chairman,  to  present  the  subject  to  the 
State  Legislature  at  the  forthcoming 
January  session,  and  ask  for  the  passing 
of  a  law  on  the  subject  in  harmony  with 
the  position  taken  by  Colonel  Wilmot  in 
his  address  and  speeches. 

The  agitation  thus  begun  was  continued 
by  many  of  the  newspapers  of  the  State- 
that  avenue  of  communicated  thought 
which  is  the  palladium  of  our  liberties  in 


96  The  Teller's  Tale 

this  latter  day  when  the  crop  of  corrup- 
tion is  appalling;  and  they  abated  their 
fight  not  a  whit,  although  the  opposition 
freely  charged  them  with  selfish  pur- 
poses, and  declared  that  it  was  not  on 
account  of  any  merit  in  the  law  that  they 
contended,  but  because  the  publications 
to  be  made  under  the  law  would  give 
them  another  source  of  revenue. 

Frankly,  I  suspect  that  there  were 
self -servings  which  put  force  and  terse- 
ness, alliteration,  and  even  rhyme,  into 
more  than  one  editorial  on  the  subject. 
But  this  argues  nothing  against  the  law, 
any  more  than  the  brilliant  speech  of 
the  attorney  argues  his  client  guilty; 
for  generally  behind  our  best  efforts  are 
minds  firmly  fixed  on  the  recompense  of 
reward. 

The  people  everywhere  discussed  the 
question,  and  the  candidates  for  the 
Legislature  were  required  (much  against 
the  courage  of  some  of  them)  to  declare 
themselves  on  the  proposition,  many  of 
them  being  elected  or  defeated  according 
to  the  declarations  made. 


Colonel  Wilmot  and  the  Bankers    97 

On  February  — ,  -  — ,  the  law  on  the 
subject  was  passed,  having  received  an 
overwhelming  majority  of  the  votes  of 
the  members  in  both  houses  of  the  Legis- 
lature, the  bill  having  been  introduced 
and  championed  by  Mr.  Bowers,  then  a 
member  of  the  lower  house,  now  a  repre- 
sentative in  Congress  from  the  Sixth 
District.  And  the  following  chapter, 
but  one,  sets  forth  the  law  as  passed,  the 
title  and  the  formal  parts  being  omitted. 

7 


CHAPTER  XII 

MINISTER   AND    NOBLEMAN 

THE  home  of  the  Blairs,  on  West 
Street,  was  aglow  with  light  and 
life,  and  music  and  moving  figures  gave 
ear  and  eye  the  sound  and  sight  of  hos- 
pitality, the  commanding  centre  of  which 
was  the  distinguished  personality  of  the 
Hon.  Charles  Henry  Blair,  recently  ap- 
pointed Minister  to  France;  for  Mrs. 
Blair  and  Miss  Blair  were  entertaining  in 
honor  of  their  husband  and  father. 

A  number  of  friends  from  a  distance 
had  come  on  to  compliment  the  former 
Congressman  with  their  presence.  Among 
others,  was  the  young  Count  De  Mar- 
tineau,  the  heir  to  an  extinct  French 
title,  who  had  met  Mary  Blair  with  her 
father  at  the  legation  in  Washington. 
98 


Minister  and  Nobleman         99 

The  Count  was  an  exceedingly  agree- 
able and  accomplished  young  fellow,  and 
thoroughly  democratic  in  his  ideas  and 
practices.  Mose  James,  our  barber, 
boasted  for  many  a  day  afterwards  that 
he  had  dressed  the  young  nobleman's 
hair  and  beard  when  he  was  down  here 
—as  he  expressed  it,  had  "served  the 
nobility." 

On  the  evening  in  question,  Albert 
Ward  and  Arthur  St.  John  were  in  the 
private  room  of  Albert,  preparing  for 
the  entertainment.  They  had  both  met 
the  Count  at  the  Blair  home  the  previous 
evening,  he  having  arrived  the  day  be- 
fore. "Arthur,"  said  Albert,  "what  do 
you  think  of  the  Count  and  his  intentions 
toward  Miss  Mary?" 

"I  do  not  know — I  had  not  thought," 
answered  Arthur;  "but  he  is  a  mere 
friend  of  the  family,  I  suppose.  Or  it 
may  be  that  he  wishes  to  share  especially 
in  Mr.  Blair's  good-will  just  at  this  time, 
so  as  to  obtain  a  business  position  with 
the  American  Legation  in  Paris,  where 
the  surroundings  are  more  congenial  to 


TOO  The  Teller's  Tale 

his  tastes,  and  where  he  is  at  home.  The 
French  nobility,  you  know,  must  work 
for  a  living  like  ourselves,  as  they  have 
no  large  landed  estates  to  mortgage,  as 
our  English  cousins  have,  nor  official 
position  and  influence  to  make  their 
notes  of  hand  negotiable." 

"I  think  you  are  wrong,  Arthur,"  said 
Albert,  "for  Mrs.  Blair  told  mother 
some  days  ago  that  the  Count  had  pros- 
pects of  inheriting  a  fortune  in  the  near 
future.  It  must  be  then,  that  he  finds 
something  more  attractive  in  Mr.  Blair's 
power  to  bestow  than  secretaryships; 
and  as  for  congenial  surroundings,  it 
seems  to  me  from  the  Count's  demeanor 
that  he  would  willingly  exchange  Europe 
for  America,  provided  Mary  Blair  were 
put  in  to  turn  the  scale. 

"There  is  another  thing,  Arthur,  of 
which  we  have  all  heard.  Some  of  the 
politicians  say  that  Mr.  Blair  himself  has 
become  immensely  rich  through  a  con- 
gressional pool  which  governed,  by  legis- 
lation, the  prices  of  certain  stocks  in 
which  its  members  invested,  which  pool 


Minister  and  Nobleman       101 

also  obtained  for  its  members  conces- 
sions in  the  newly  acquired  territory  of 
the  United  States.  It  is  also  said  that 
they  made  a  great  deal  of  money  by 
buying  up  lands  in  the  West,  which  were 
afterwards  favored  by  special  legislation. 
Mr.  Blair  was  also  a  very  stanch  friend  of 
a  certain  officer  in  the  post-office  depart- 
ment at  Washington,  and  his  political 
enemies  are  saying  that  trouble  is  now 
brewing  for  that  officer  and  his  friends, 
many  of  whom  will  be  implicated  in  dis- 
closures of  fraud  yet  to  be  made. 

"I  should  be  sorry  to  know  that  our 
distinguished  fellow  -  citizen  had  been 
guilty  of  these  things,  but  it  seems  to  me 
from  his  style  of  living  that  he  must  have 
made  a  great  deal  more  money  in  Con- 
gress than  his  salary  amounted  to.  Now 
that  he  is  out  of  Congress  and  is  going 
abroad,  I  hope  for  the  sake  of  his  family 
that  his  name  may  be  kept  out  of  any 
scandals  which  we  may  have. 

"Doubtless,  our  friend,  the  dapper 
Count,  is  well  informed  as  to  the  financial 
condition  of  Mr.  Blair;  and  I  suspect 


102  The  Teller's  Tale 

that  he,  with  the  accustomed  cunning  of  his 
race,  may  read  in  the  eyes  of  Mary  Blair, 
largesse  as  well  as  love — bounty  as  well 
as  beauty — and  that  he  is  using  his  soft 
Gallic  accents  for  more  purposes  than  one. 
I  do  not  wish  to  shake  your  confidence 
in  any  person;  but  the  whole  world  has 
turned  to  materiality,  and  on  top  of  it  all, 
and  biggest  of  all,  is  the  almighty  dollar." 

"Albert,  you  are  right  in  the  main," 
said  Arthur,  after  a  pause  of  serious 
thought;  "but  I  do  not  go  all  the  way 
with  you.  Edmund  Burke — was  it  not? 
— said  you  could  not  lay  a  charge  broad 
enough  to  indict  a  whole  people.  While 
there  are  many  who  act  according  to  your 
estimate  of  all,  there  are  some  who  do 
not.  And  the  beautiful  thing  about  the 
situation  is,  that  the  honest,  loving  heart 
can  see  through  the  guise  of  deceit  and 
dishonesty  which  attempts  to  conceal  the 
fortune-hunter's  real  purpose  and  want 
of  principle;  so  that,  in  the  end,  we  all 
get  what  we  are  trying  to  give,  and  there 
is  a  fair  exchange — which  is  no  robbery. 

"That  a  good  woman  may  appear  to 


Minister  and  Nobleman       103 

be  marrying  for  money  does  not  dis- 
prove my  proposition.  Woman  loves 
power  in  man.  It  is  one  of  the  chief 
affinities  of  her  heart — fixed  in  her  nature 
by  God  for  her  protection — the  protec- 
tion of  the  weak  by  the  strong.  And 
woman  marries  the  rich  man,  not  because 
he  has  money,  but  because  of  the  power 
he  shows  in  getting  it  or  holding  it,  just 
as  she  marries  the  statesman,  the  painter, 
or  the  poet  (who  is  usually  poor  in  money) , 
on  account  of  the  power  that  lies  within 
him,  and  by  which  she  is  attracted. 

"The  Count  may  be  the  kind  of  man 
you  say  he  is.  But  as  to  Mary:  while 
she  is  attracted  by  wealth  and  its  ac- 
companying pleasures,  there  are  other 
things  which  interest  her.  Since  she  is 
becoming  more  settled  and  her  individ- 
uality stronger,  she  has  ideals  higher 
than  your  stack  of  dollars,  and  will  be 
true  to  them.  Whatever  the  Count's 
intentions  may  be,  and  whatever  the  in- 
tentions of  the  father  and  mother  may 
be,  I  am  quite  sure  that  Mary  will  be 
guided  by  her  heart  alone." 


104  The  Teller's  Tale 

At  the  Blairs'  that  evening,  when  Al- 
bert and  Alice  looked  for  the  young 
hostess,  to  say  good-night,  it  was  not  the 
Count  they  found  sipping  an  ice  with  her 
on  a  rustic  seat  among  the  palms  of  the 
moonlit  conservatory.  "What  are  you 
two  doing  off  here?"  said  Alice;  "and 
what  have  you  done  with  the  Count?  I 
have  not  seen  him  for  an  hour." 

"The  Count!— Oh,  he's  like  'The 
flowers  that  bloom  in  the  spring,  tra-la,' 
— has  nothing  to  do  with  the  case," 
answered  Mary,  with  a  mischievous  look 
at  Arthur. 

A  noise,  as  of  breaking  twigs,  attracted 
their  attention  to  the  far  corner  of  the 
conservatory.  They  knew  not  what  it 
was,  nor  heard  it  again.  They  did  not 
see  the  dark  figure  that  disappeared 
through  a  side  door  into  another  part  of 
the  building.  It  was  the  Count.  The 
next  day  he  terminated  his  visit  and  re- 
turned to  Washington. 

Was  Arthur  correct  in  his  estimate  of 
the  character  of  Mary  Blair?  Would  she 
be  true  to  the  end  ?  We  shall  see. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE    LAW 

SECTION  i.  Banks,  bankers,  and 
others  whose  business  is  to  receive 
money  on  deposit  payable  on  demand  or 
otherwise,  may  relieve  themselves  of  re- 
sponsibility for  errors  in  the  accounts  of 
depositors  and  others,  when  such  errors 
are  the  result  of  dishonesty  on  the  part 
of  officers,  tellers,  bookkeepers,  or  others 
employed  by  them. 

SEC.  2.  In  order  to  obtain  relief,  stock- 
holders of  banks  must  comply  with  the 
provisions  of  this  Act  with  reference  to 
the  conduct  of  their  business  and  the 
publishing  of  detailed  statements  of  their 
bank's  condition.  And  the  errors  re- 
lieved against  will  be  only  those  which 
appear  in  such  published  statements. 
105 


io6  The  Teller's  Tale 

SEC.  3.  This  Act  shall  not  apply  to  a 
published  error  if  the  person  affected  by 
the  same,  and  in  whose  account  the  dis- 
honest error  has  been  made,  shall  make 
complaint  to  the  committee  of  publica- 
tion of  the  bank  and  demand  the  correc- 
tion of  the  same  within  thirty  days  from 
the  completion  of  the  publication. 

SEC.  4.  Any  bank  or  banker  desir- 
ing to  take  advantage  of  this  Act  shall, 
at  the  time  of  receiving  the  initial  de- 
posit of  any  person  or  other  customer, 
deliver  to  him  a  pass-book  in  which  shall 
be  entered  the  amount  of  his  deposit, 
with  a  printed  notice  and  agreement  in 
said  pass-book  substantially  of  the  fol- 
lowing form  and  effect : 

(a)  "It  is  a  rule  of  this  bank  to  as- 
certain and  prove  at  least  twice  each 
year  the  true  condition  of  its  assets  and 
liabilities.  For  that  purpose  it  will  pub- 
lish at  such  times  detailed  statements  of 
all  assets  and  liabilities,  omitting  the 
names  of  its  depositors  and  other  cus- 
tomers, but  using  a  number  to  correspond 
with  each  amount,  such  publication  being 


The  Law  107 

made  for  the  purpose  of  giving  notice  to 
the  depositors  and  others,  and  affording 
them  an  opportunity  to  have  their  ac- 
counts adjusted  and  reconciled  in  case 
the  published  amount  does  not  agree 
with  the  customer's  pass-book,  or  under- 
standing of  his  account  or  other  matter 
between  him  and  the  bank. 

(b)  "Your  number  in  the  publication 
to  be  made  will  be ,  and  the  publica- 
tion will  be  made  in  -  for 

not  less  than  three  successive  issues. 

(c)  ' '  This  bank  will  not  be  responsible 
for  errors  in  accounts,  and  other  matters 
between  it  and  others,  where  publication 
of  the  amount  shown  to  be  due  (the  bank 
or  the  customers,  as  the  case  may  be) 
by  the  bank's  books,  has  been  properly 
made,  unless  complaint  be  made  to  the 
publication  committee  of  the  bank  within 
thirty  days  from  the  completion  of  the 
first  publication  showing  such  error. 

(d)  "Do  not  take  this  book  (or  other 
evidence  of  your  standing  with  the  bank) 
out    without   having    the    president    or 
cashier  sign  this  notice  in  person  and 


io8  The  Teller's  Tale 

give  you  a  publication  number.  No 
other  person  is  authorized  to  sign  it." 

SEC.  5.  The  proof  of  publication  of 
such  notices  shall  be  made  in  the  same 
manner  as  in  case  of  notices  to  non- 
resident defendants  in  the  Chancery 
Court,  and  shall  be  registered  and  kept 
on  file  in  the  Chancery  Clerk's  office  sub- 
ject at  all  time  to  the  inspection  of  the 
public. 

SEC.  6.  The  statements  to  be  published 
shall  be  made,  verified,  and  signed  by  a 
publication  committee,  which  committee 
shall  emanate  from  a  stockholders'  meet- 
ing to  be  held  at  least  once  a  year.  All 
complaints  of  errors  in  any  published 
statement  shall  be  made  to  said  com- 
mittee within  the  time  allowed  by  Sec- 
tion 3  of  this  Act;  and  if  complaint  be 
not  so  made,  and  a  reconciliation  re- 
quested or  demanded  within  such  time, 
the  facts  detailed  in  such  publication  shall 
be  taken  and  held,  as  to  all  errors  and 
omissions  not  so  complained  of,  as  true, 
and  as  correctly  stating  the  accounts 
between  the  bank  and  its  customers. 


The  Law  109 

SEC.  7.  Notices  must  be  posted  in  the 
lobby  of  the  bank  stating  that  no  ac- 
count will  be  opened  except  on  a  per- 
sonal interview  with  the  president  or 
cashier,  which  notices  shall  cite  the  fact 
that  publications  of  all  accounts  and 
transactions  are  made  from  time  to  time, 
in  a  certain  newspaper,  for  the  purpose 
of  reconciling  accounts,  and  warning  the 
public  of  the  consequences  of  not  ex- 
amining such  notices  for  their  own  pro- 
tection; and,  furthermore,  a  standing 
notice  shall  be  constantly  kept  in  some 
newspaper  having  a  general  circulation 
in  the  community  of  the  bank's  cus- 
tomers, which  shall  give  the  same  warn- 
ing as  the  notice  in  the  lobby. 

SEC.  8.  In  case  the  teller  or  other  em- 
ployee has  received  a  deposit  or  other 
initial  payment  without  observing  Sec- 
tion 4  of  this  Act,  the  observance  of 
Section  7  by  the  bank  shall  cure  such 
omission  and  give  the  bank  all  the  rights 
which  this  Act  confers  upon  banks  which 
observe  Section  4;  provided,  that  this 
right  will  be  lost  if  the  stockholders  fail 


no  The  Teller's  Tale 

to  discharge  from  his  position,  at  once, 
any  employee  who  has  failed  to  observe 
Section  4. 

SEC.  9.  The  provisions  of  this  Act 
shall  not  operate  to  release  a  bank  from 
liability  to  a  depositor  whose  account  is 
incorrectly  stated,  or  omitted  from  the 
books  of  the  bank,  unless  the  error,  or 
some  part  of  it,  has  been  caused  by 
fraud  to  the  bank's  hurt;  and  in  no  case 
shall  the  bank  escape  liability  to  any 
person  in  a  greater  degree  than  it  has 
suffered  loss  with  respect  to  that  par- 
ticular account. 

SEC.  10.  The  provisions  of  this  Act 
shall  not  be  construed  to  exempt  dis- 
honest officers  or  employees,  but  they 
shall  be  liable  personally  and  on  their 
official  bonds  to  any  person  who  may 
be  wronged  or  defrauded  by  their  con- 
duct. And  in  all  cases  where  this  law  of 
publication  has  been  complied  with  so  as 
to  release  a  bank  from  liability  to  a  de- 
frauded party,  such  party  so  defrauded 
shall  have  all  the  rights  against  the  offi- 
cer or  employee  committing  the  wrong, 


The  Law  m 

and  his  bondsmen,  as  the  bank  has,  or 
should  have  had,  but  for  this  Act. 

SEC.  ii.  The  detailed  statements  of 
the  bank's  condition,  as  prepared  for 
publication,  shall  be  signed  by  each  and 
every  officer  and  employee  of  the  bank, 
under  a  certificate  to  the  effect  that  such 
statement  is  true  to  the  best  of  their 
knowledge  and  belief ;  and  any  one  sign- 
ing such  certificate,  knowing  any  part  of 
the  same  to  be  untrue,  shall,  on  convic- 
tion thereof,  be  liable  to  punishment  by 
a  fine  of  not  more  than  five  hundred 
dollars,  or  by  confinement  in  the  county 
jail  for  not  more  than  twelve  months,  or 
by  both  such  fine  and  imprisonment. 

SEC.  12.  The  fees  allowed  publishers 
for  making  a  series  of  three  publications, 
as  required  under  this  Act,  shall  be  five 
cents  for  each  person  named  therein. 
Should  there  be  no  newspaper  willing  to 
publish  the  notices  at  that  rate,  such 
publications  may  be  made  by  posting 
the  required  notices  for  three  weeks  in 
one  or  more  public  places  in  each  com- 
munity where  a  depositor  resides. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

LIGHT   IN    DARK    PLACES 

IT  is  now  many  months  since  the  law 
set  out  in  the  preceding  chapter  was 
passed,  and  the  banks  throughout  the 
State  began  to  comply  with  its  terms ;  and 
already  all  the  virtues  which  its  author 
claimed  for  it,  and  more,  have  been  proved. 

Nothing  predicted  by  Colonel  Wilmot 
and  Mr.  Bowers  has  been  more  fully  de- 
monstrated than  the  fact  that  there  were 
many  banks,  the  rascality  of  whose  em- 
ployees, or  some  of  them,  would  be  re- 
vealed by  a  general  uncovering  such  as 
the  law  would  bring  about. 

Five  banks,  in  as  many  different  sec- 
tions of  the  State,  discovered,  on  making 
publication  of  their  accounts  by  number, 
that  many  of  their  depositors  had  put 

112 


Light  in  Dark  Places         113 

more  money  in  bank,  not  drawn  out, 
than  the  books  showed,  which  sums,  in 
some  cases,  ran  up  into  tens  of  thousands 
of  dollars;  that  there  were  many  de- 
positors whose  names  were  not  on  the 
books  at  all ;  and,  in  one  case,  that  many 
notes  which  appeared  in  the  list  of  bills 
receivable  had  been  paid  in  full. 

In  every  case  but  one,  it  was  the  vice 
of  gambling — in  stocks,  bonds,  grain, 
cotton,  get -rich-quick  schemes — Alaskan 
gold  mining,  rubber  plantations  in 
South  America,  and  so  forth — which  had 
wrought  ruin  in  the  life  and  character  of 
one  who  had  stood  as  well,  who  had  been 
reared  as  well,  and  whose  antecedents 
were  as  upright,  as  anybody  in  the  com- 
munity. Some  of  them  had  yielded  to 
the  so-called  gentleman's  game — where 
the  chances  were  good  for  a  fair  profit 
only, — while  it  required  other  and  larger 
degrees  of  certainty  and  profit — a  widen- 
ing of  the  vortex — to  catch  the  con- 
servative conscience  and  put  it  under  the 
spell  of  speculation. 

And,  let  it  not  be  forgotten :  during  all 

8 


ii4  The  Teller's  Tale 

that  time,  this  great  Government  of  ours 
was  (as  it  still  is)  carrying  this  con- 
science poison — invitations  to  speculate 
and  steal — from  its  sources  of  sin  and 
iniquity,  and  offering  it  to  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  the  innocent,  sugar-coated  with 
the  promises  of  wealth,  and  flavored  with 
the  expectations  of  place  and  power; 
and  for  a  pitiful  penny  per  each  deadly 
portion  carried  and  delivered.  This  is 
the  way  our  mails  are  used !  This  is  the 
way  Congress  obeys  the  Constitution's 
command  to  "Provide  for  the  general 
welfare ' '  of  the  people ! 

This  is  not  all :  if  you  will  run  your  eye 
down  the  line  of  bank  employees  in  the 
State,  as  they  existed  when  this  law  was 
passed,  and  as  they  exist  to-day,  you  will 
be  struck  with  the  changes  that  have 
occurred  in  their  personnel;  for  some  of 
the  positions  which  once  knew  bright  and 
outwardly  attractive  men  will  know  them 
no  more;  and  the  explanation  of  this 
is  that  many  banks  have  discovered  ir- 
regularities and  peculations  which  were 
not  of  such  a  serious  nature  as  to  affect 


Light  in  Dark  Places         1 1 5 

the  integrity  of  their  business,  and  which, 
out  of  charity  or  other  considerations, 
they  have  not  allowed  to  be  known 
beyond  their  directors'  rooms. 

One  sad  part  about  these  employees  is 
that  they  are  also  shut  out  from  positions 
of  trust  elsewhere;  for,  although  the 
public  may  have  no  suspicion  of  the  past 
and  the  follies  which  followed  tempta- 
tion, the  fact  nevertheless  remains  that 
their  former  employers  will,  by  silence, 
insinuation,  or  recommendation  (?),  put 
them  under  the  ban  of  their  disappro- 
bation. 

Are  they  inherently  worse  than  others, 
that  they  should  be  hounded,  like  Throck- 
morton,  by  a  nemesis  to  the  ends  of  the 
earth — suspected  of  men  and  accused  of 
conscience  ?  No ;  the  system  under  which 
they  worked  wrought  their  ruin;  and  it 
alone  is  responsible  for  their  condition. 

Other  discoveries  of  the  character  of 
the  five  referred  to  above  were  feared 
almost  everywhere ;  and  nothing  but  the 
fullest  confidence  in  the  ability  and  in- 
tegrity of  both  officers  and  employees 


n6  The  Teller's  Tale 

induced  depositors  and  business  people  to 
await  the  completion  of  publications,  so 
that  legal  and  actual  proofs  of  condition 
could  be  made. 

But,  now  that  this  crisis  of  uncer- 
tainty has  passed,  and  doubts  are  no 
longer  nursed,  and  insinuations  are  no 
longer  made,  a  feeling  of  proud  satis- 
faction has  swept  over  the  people,  which 
is  already  reflected  in  the  swelling  of 
bank  deposits  and  the  steady  flow  of 
business  to  the  centres  where  the  con- 
veniences and  usefulness  of  banking  are 
understood  and  demonstrated  in  the 
most  attractive  way. 

Our  own  city  has  enjoyed  more  than  its 
share  of  this  tide  of  increasing  confidence 
and  business,  not  only  because  it  is  known 
that  Colonel  Wilmot  was  the  inventor  of 
the  method  of  absolute  protection,  but 
also  because  there  never  had  been  a  time, 
during  all  the  doubt  and  trial  of  the  law 
as  an  effective  agent  for  good,  when  our 
people  had  the  least  misgiving  as  to  the 
solvency  of  our  banks  or  the  integrity  of 
the  young  men  employed  in  them. 


CHAPTER  XV 

POLITICS   AND    POLITICIANS 

'T'HERE  was  also  another  tide  coming 
*      our  way,  in  proof  of  the  adage  that 
good  fortune,  like  ill  fortune,  never  comes 
single. 

This  other  tide  was  a  political  one,  and 
on  the  crest  of  its  foremost  wave  Colonel 
Wilmot  was  borne  along — not  nolens 
volens;  because  he  was  not  wholly  differ- 
ent from  other  modest  men  at  whose 
doors  great  honors  have  knocked:  like 
them,  he  was  willing  to  receive,  even 
to  contend  for,  the  position.  In  fact, 
though  unintentionally,  he  started  this 
wave  himself  at  the  bankers'  meeting. 
Afterwards,  of  its  own  momentum,  it 
flowed  through  legislative  halls,  and  on, 
in  ever-increasing  undulations,  to  the 
117 


n8  The  Teller's  Tale 

remotest  confines  of  the  State — gathering 
force  in  the  minds  and  hearts  of  the 
people  as  it  went.  And  from  the  start  it 
seemed  inevitable  that  this  wave  should 
anchor  its  treasure-trove  into  the  highest 
office  within  the  gift  of  the  people  of  the 
commonwealth . 

Politicians,  young  and  old,  seeing  this 
rising  tide  from  afar,  pricked  up  their 
ears  and  waited  to  see  whether  it  was 
the  "real  thing";  while  the  "gang"- 
that  aggregation  of  gall,  graft,  and  greed 
—that  combination  of  cupidity,  corrup- 
tion, and  cowardice,  which  had  so  long 
ruled  the  State,  and  whose  ipse  dixit  had 
long  been  law, — they  recognized  it  at 
once  and  took  common  counsel  as  to 
how  they  might  avoid  its  flood. 

The  "gang"  did  not  want  Colonel  Wil- 
mot  for  governor,  for  they  knew  his 
success  meant  their  annihilation.  Fur- 
thermore, they  had  already  selected  their 
candidate  for  this  office  and  every  other 
one,  the  filling  of  which  was  necessary  in 
the  settlement  of  old  political  debts,  or 
for  the  maintenance  of  that  political 


Politics  and  Politicians        119 

prestige  so  necessary  to  their  continued 
enjoyment  of  place  and  power  and  the 
spoils  that  go  with  them. 

They  therefore  pooh-poohed  his  can- 
didacy at  first,  and  undertook,  by  ridi- 
cule, to  make  it  appear  as  a  politically 
promoted  impossibility;  but  later,  when 
every  other  weapon  had  failed,  the 
leaders  sounded  the  tocsin  of  war  and 
gathered  their  forces  to  fight  him  to  the 
end. 

The  subsidized  press  said  the  combina- 
tion would  be  an  easy  winner;  and 
many  of  the  best  people  in  the  country 
thought  it  would  at  least  be  a  momentous 
struggle.  But  not  so.  No  such  com- 
bination, however  well  organized,  and 
however  long  and  strong  may  have  been 
its  hold  upon  the  affairs  of  state,  can 
succeed  when  opposed  by  a  popular 
uprising,  especially  when  such  uprising 
is  represented  by  a  candidate  whose 
courage  and  convictions  are  co-ordinated 
with  the  well-springs  of  love  and  liberty, 
truth  and  justice,  which  are  the  usual 
concomitants  of  popular  demonstrations. 


120  The  Teller's  Tale 

In  other  words,  when  the  people  and 
their  candidate  are  in  accord  on  prin- 
ciples in  antithesis  to  that  cultivated 
desire  for  plunder  which  holds  the  ' '  gang ' ' 
together,  they  are  bound  to  prevail. 

Not  only  this:  but  time  and  tenure 
weaken  such  combinations,  instead  of 
making  them  stronger.  There  is  no  such 
thing  as  friendship  growing  out  of  mu- 
tuality in  wrong-doing  of  any  kind. 
Thieves  fall  out  and  honest  men  get 
their  dues.  If  political  plunderers  make 
the  spoils  of  office  sufficiently  large  to 
satisfy  their  confederates,  hirelings,  and 
heelers,  they  land  in  jail  for  theft  or 
other  crimes;  while,  if  they  do  not,  the 
disappointed  fall  out  of  line  and  failure 
is  sure  to  follow. 

Nor  is  this  all.  Neither  the  dependent 
life  nor  the  dishonest  life  is  conducive 
to  the  growth  of  moral  courage.  The 
shrewd  manipulator  or  wire-puller  whose 
influence  or  position  depends  upon  the 
result  to  follow  is  generally  sly  enough  to 
wait  and  watch,  in  passivity,  until  the 
signs  in  the  political  heavens  prove  them- 


Politics  and  Politicians        121 

selves;  and  at  the  right  moment  he 
jumps  into  the  "band-wagon"  and  as- 
sumes to  drive,  as  if  he  had  been  on  hand 
from  the  beginning. 

And  the  underling  is  not  by  himself. 
This  species  of  cowardice  often  pertains 
to  those  high  up  in  party  councils,  who, 
if  not  so  far  committed  that  retreat  is 
impossible,  are  ready  to  save  themselves 
by  "casting  an  anchor  to  windward." 

As  my  readers  have  doubtless  inferred, 
Colonel  Wilmot  was  ridiculed,  opposed, 
courted,  and  supported — in  turns — by 
the  "gang";  and  when  the  party  pri- 
maries were  held  he  was  nominated  for 
governor  without  opposition. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE    RACE    IS    WON 

"Two  hands  upon  the  breast, 

And  labor  's  done ; 
Two  cold  feet  crossed  in  rest, 
The  race  is  won." 

Had  Providence,  in  His  all-wise  de- 
crees, permitted  our  hopes  to  be  realized 
by  the  election  of  Colonel  Wilmot  to  the 
office  of  governor,  no  greater  happiness 
could  have  fallen  to  the  lot  of  a  com- 
munity. And  just  why  it  was  not  to  be 
so  our  short-sighted  vision  will  never 
understand  until  that  great  day  when 
time  shall  be  unrolled  as  a  scroll  and  the 
purposes  of  God  Himself  revealed. 

A  cold  contracted  while  attending  a 
reunion  of  his  old  comrades  in  a  distant 
town  settled  in  the  old  wound  where  a 
ball  lay  encysted  near  a  vital  spot,  and 
resulting  pneumonia  carried  him  away 


122 


The  Race  is  Won  123 

from  us  ere  we  scarcely  knew  he  was 
stricken;  and  thereby  the  hopes  and 
aspirations  of  the  whole  State,  as  well  as 
our  own,  were  overruled  and  condemned 
to  disappointment ;  and  thus  was  the  hus- 
band and  father  cut  down  and  the  integ- 
rity of  a  happy  home  destroyed,  just  at  a 
time  when  the  joy  of  living  was  awaiting 
them  in  a  larger  life,  the  anticipated  pleas- 
ures of  which  already  filled  their  hearts. 

It  is  the  loaded  wagon  that  breaks 
down,  the  overloaded  dynamo  that  burns 
out;  and  the  physical  man,  as  well  as 
the  mental  man,  is  not  unlike  these,  there 
being  a  point  beyond  which  even  will- 
power is  powerless  and  supreme  effort 
fails  of  its  own  ponderosity. 

It  is  difficult  to  make  the  lazy  mind 
or  body  work ;  but  it  is  more  difficult — 
sometimes  impossible — to  make  the  in- 
dustrious mind  or  body  cease  from  work. 
For  the  lazy  man,  not  having  taught 
others  to  depend  upon  him,  and  having 
no  definite  ambition,  misses  the  inspira- 
tion to  effort,  which  the  industrious  man 
cultivates  and  carries  wherever  he  goes, 


124  The  Teller's  Tale 

and  which  sometimes  causes  him  to 
undertake  burdens  which  he  can  neither 
bear  nor  cast  aside — the  mind  being 
powerless  to  rest  at  will. 

Had  Colonel  Wilmot  not  burdened 
both  mind  and  body  with  such  a  com- 
plexity of  duties  that  the  day's  work 
passed  into  the  night  and  prevented  him 
from  returning  on  the  morrow  refreshed 
by  sleep, — thus  reducing  his  vitality  far 
below  the  normal, — he  could  have  with- 
stood the  attack  of  disease  and  lived  to 
bless  his  people  for  many  years  to  come. 

But  it  is  not  for  us  to  quarrel  with  fate. 
It  may  be  better  to  wear  out  than  to 
rust  out.  And  we  have  the  consolation 
of  knowing  that  Colonel  Wilmot  accom- 
plished more  in  the  years  of  his  life  than 
many  others  endowed  with  better  health 
have  accomplished  in  threescore  years 
and  ten,  and  that  his  efforts  for  the 
community  and  the  State  will  bear  fruit 
long  after  his  earthly  comrades  have  been 
gathered  to  the  stars  and  the  marble 
monument  erected  to  his  memory  has 
crumbled  into  dust. 


Part  II 

CHAPTER  XVII 

WILL   SORROWS    NEVER   CEASE? 

OPRING,  rising  bright  and  buoyant 
^  from  her  long  sleep  in  the  embrace 
of  winter  —  too  cold  at  first,  but  later 
drinking  in  the  distilled  gladness  of  light, 
and  knitting  together  again  the  tissues  of 
throbbing  life, — grew  and  gambolled  and 
glowed  into  the  warmth  and  weariness  of 
summer-time;  and  summer,  in  her  turn 
and  time,  disappeared  in  the  golden 
glory  of  autumn  days. 

But  even  autumn  cannot  long  remain: 
the  gold  must  turn  to  brown,  since  beauty 
and  ripeness  only  mark  that  transitory 
125 


126  The  Teller's  Tale 

condition  between  growth  and  decay, 
life  and  death.  Winter  is  king  of  the 
year,  because  the  other  seasons  are  the 
vassal  slaves  who  fill  his  coffers  with 
their  all.  It  was  in  this  season  that 
Prentice  wrote : 

"Remorseless  Time;    fierce  Spirit  of  the  glass 

and  scythe; 

What  power  can  stay  him  in  his  silent  course, 
Or  melt  his  iron  heart  to  pity  ?  " 

More  than  one  fast-revolving  year  has 
come  and  gone  since  that  cruel  winter 
which  took  Colonel  Wilmot  from  us; 
and,  as  if  the  loss  of  him  was  the  begin- 
ning of  sorrows,  these  years  have  brought 
to  us  a  train  of  misfortunes  whose  mag- 
nitude might  inspire  an  Iliad  from  the 
pen  of  one  capable  of  expressing  the  full 
measure  of  our  woes. 

On  the  4th  of  February,  a  few  weeks 
after  the  arrest  of  Arthur  St.  John,  I 
received  a  note  from  his  mother  asking 
me  to  call  and  see  her  son  who,  she 


Will  Sorrows  Never  Cease?  127 

stated,  had  sufficiently  recovered  his  com- 
posure of  spirit  to  talk  with  me  about 
his  troubles. 

Having  been  the  attorney  for  Arthur's 
father  during  his  lifetime,  and  for  his 
estate  after  death,  and  having  known  the 
family  and  appreciated  their  friendship 
and  worth  for  many  years,  I  did  not 
hesitate  to  obey  the  summons,  although, 
as  my  clientele  was  not  of  that  class  of 
persons  who  often  need  the  services  of 
one  acquainted  with  the  practice  of  the 
criminal  law,  I  doubted  my  ability  to 
handle  properly  so  important  a  case  as 
his  appeared  to  be;  for,  surely,  not  only 
had  he  violated  the  laws  of  the  State, 
but  he  had  broken  the  rules  of  trust  and 
integrity  and  brotherhood  between  man 
and  man,  and  the  cries  and  righteous  in- 
dignation of  the  wronged  were  ringing 
curses  and  condemnation  on  his  head! 

On  arriving  at  the  jail  where  he  had 
been  confined,  I  found  him  lying  on  a 
comfortable  couch  in  one  of  the  larger 
rooms  which  had  been  furnished  for  his 
use.  His  face  was  white  from  confine- 


128  The  Teller's  Tale 

ment,  and  there  were  heavy  lines  of 
trouble  in  his  features;  but  his  expres- 
sion and  voice  were  better  than  when  I 
last  saw  him,  and  when  he  arose  to 
grasp  my  hand  I  saw  in  the  steadier 
light  of  his  blue  eyes  a  sign  either  of  re- 
turning hope  or  resignation.  There  was, 
too,  something  of  that  old-time  bon- 
homie— if  ever  so  faint — which  character- 
ized his  every  glance  and  movement  in 
the  happy  days  when  he  was  teller  at  the 
bank.  I  did  not  know  the  cause  of  this 
better  spirit,  but  I  supposed  it  to  be  due 
to  a  desire  on  his  part  to  meet  the  world 
with  a  full  and  frank  acknowledgment 
of  his  sins. 

In  a  few  moments  after  my  arrival  we 
were  left  alone,  and  he  had  thrown  him- 
self into  the  midst  of  his  story ;  and  dur- 
ing that  day  and  the  next  he  gave  me  a 
history  of  his  life — the  hidden  part,  the 
true  self,  the  alter  ego — the  good  man's 
Dr.  Jekyll,  the  bad  man's  Mr.  Hyde — 
that  controlling,  responsible  conscious- 
ness which  must  be  to  us  either  a  blessing 
or  a  curse;  for 


Will  Sorrows  Never  Cease  ?  1 29 

"  Our  acts  our  angels  are,  or  good  or  ill, 
The  fatal  shadows  that  walk  by  us  still." 

There  was  so  much  in  his  story  of 
wholesome  value  to  others — especially 
the  struggling  young  man  or  woman 
going  out  to  meet  the  issues  of  life  for  the 
first  time — that  I  obtained  his  consent 
to  preserve  it  as  coming  from  him  to  me 
in  the  form  of  a  letter,  and  to  be  pub- 
lished thereafter,  if  in  my  judgment  it 
should  be  proper  to  do  so. 

I  have  taken  the  liberty  of  pruning  the 
statement  in  places,  and  of  engrafting 
some  of  my  own  thoughts  at  other 
places ;  though  I  do  not  claim  originality 
of  ideas  in  the  production  of  any  part  of 
it,  for  the  reason  that  they  are  such  as 
would  naturally  be  suggested  by  the 
things  he  told  me  and  the  experience 
which  I  know  to  have  been  his.  A  few 
changes,  by  way  of  omission,  were  made 
by  him  in  the  completed  narrative,  at 
my  request,  but  it  is  substantially  as 
originally  told  to  me;  and  the  state- 
ments of  fact  are  just  as  they  occurred, 


130  The  Teller's  Tale 

the   only  fiction   being   the   change   of 
names  and  places. 

In  this  connection,  I  will  also  state 
that  this  tale  originally  commenced  with 
this  visit  to  Arthur  at  the  jail,  while 
the  paper  of  Colonel  Wilmot  and  the 
law  passed  were  introduced  later  on; 
and  that  it  was  at  the  earnest  request — 
almost  command — of  some  friends,  of 
partial,  but  discriminating  judgment, 
who  were  acquainted  with  many  of  the 
facts,  that  I  went  back  and  began  at  the 
beginning  of  those  events  which  concern 
the  people  of  the  story. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

ARTHUR'S  STORY 
Lessons  and  Reflections 

DEAR  MR.  RUSH: 

Feeling  that  the  story  of  my  short 
but  eventful  career  should  some  day  be 
made  known,  not  only  for  my  family 
name's  sake,  and  for  the  sake  of  those 
friends  who  have,  in  a  certain  sense,  be- 
lieved in  me  from  the  beginning  of  my 
troubles,  but  because  of  the  lessons  it 
offers  to  people  everywhere,  I  make  this 
statement  to  you,  who,  next  to  my  dear 
mother,  have  been  the  best  of  all  my 
friends;  and  it  is  through  you  I  wish  to 
speak  to  the  world. 

When  I  was  a  little  boy  my  father  used 
to  send  me  to  the  County  Bank  for  small 
131 


132  The  Teller's  Tale 

change  and  to  purchase  small  drafts  for 
his  remittances ;  and  I  would  often  stand 
for  minutes  looking  through  the  screen 
above  the  counter  at  the  busy  men  han- 
dling papers  and  great  bundles  of  bank- 
notes and  sacks  of  coin.  I  thought  how 
much  nicer  it  was  to  be  in  such  a  place 
as  that  than  among  the  dust  and  medi- 
cine bottles  of  my  father's  office  over 
the  drug  store.  In  the  one,  I  could  hear 
the  clink -clink  of  coin,  and  see  the  glim- 
mer of  new  money.  In  the  other,  I  heard 
the  despair  of  the  sick  in  their  groanings 
even  unto  death.  The  one  was  to  me  a 
typical  house  of  plenty,  where  none  but 
the  abundant  and  happy  ever  went, 
while  the  other  was  the  refuge  of  the 
poor  and  miserable. 

I  did  not  then  know — I  had  not  learned 
— that  there  are  compensations  in  the 
work  which  one  may  do  among  the  poor 
and  needy,  which  compensations  are 
lacking  in  the  work  always  measured  in 
dollars  and  cents.  I  did  not  then  under- 
stand (as  I  hope  I  now  do)  that  it  is  only 
to  the  extent  that  we  regard  ourselves  as 


Arthur's  Story  133 

trustees  for  God  and  humanity  that  we 
can  or  will  obtain  either  happiness  or 
lasting  good  from  that  which  we  possess 
—that  our  time,  our  talents,  and  our 
taels  are  given  us  for  the  one  purpose. 

Pardon  me,  will  you,  when  I  refer  to 
the  fact  that  my  father  never  seemed 
to  catch  the  spirit  of  acquisition  or  ac- 
cumulation, as  applied  to  wealth;  and 
yet  he  was  as  busy  and  untiring  among 
his  books,  his  medicines,  and  his  sick  as 
ever  the  banker  was  with  his  notes  and 
cash.  And,  as  I  look  back  upon  him,  in 
his  disposition  and  demeanor  I  should 
say  that  he  was  happier  than  the  banker, 
and  that  his  work  was  more  beneficial 
because  of  the  disposition  and  character 
it  formed  within  him.  As  he  ministered 
to  the  sick  of  every  condition  for  miles 
around,  his  love  for  humanity  increased 
and  became  to  him  a  wealth  more 
precious  than  the  banker's  money. 

Not  that  the  money-maker  may  not  be 
happy.  I  only  mean  that  the  chances — 
the  influences  of  the  life  he  leads — are 
against  him.  In  order  to  acquire  money, 


134  The  Teller's  Tale 

and  to  handle  business  interests  from  a 
money-making  standpoint,  it  is  necessary 
that  he  cultivate  a  certain  disposition 
and  temperament,  which  disposition  and 
temperament  are  not  conducive  to  that 
liberality  and  unselfishness  which  must 
walk  hand  in  hand  with  our  larger  and 
better  happiness. 

"Hardly  shall  they  that  have  riches 
enter  the  kingdom  of  heaven";  not  from 
any  fault  of  heaven,  nor  yet  because  of 
the  riches  themselves,  for  heaven  itself  is 
rich,  but  wholly  because  of  the  condition 
of  mind,  or  character,  which  has  been 
produced  along  with  the  riches,  and 
which  can  hardly  be  removed. 

I  planned  to  be,  if  possible,  a  banker, 
that  I  might  have  a  position  on  the  other 
side  of  that  railing,  through  and  over 
which  I  had  looked  with  such  longings; 
and  I  wish  to  give  emphasis  now  to  the 
statement  that  this  ambition  was  as 
pure  as  any  that  ever  animated  a  human 
breast.  I  should  have  scorned  the  sug- 
gestion that  I  would  ever  use,  even  tem- 
porarily, any  money  which  might  be 


Arthur's  Story  135 

charged  to  my  keeping.  The  temptation 
to  deviate  from  the  straight  line  of  in- 
tegrity ever  so  slightly  had  not  then 
touched  even  the  outer  door  of  my  con- 
sciousness. I  hoped  to  deserve  a  good 
position  some  day — even  the  best — and 
to  obtain  it. 

That  temptation — an  unwelcome  guest 
— did  ever  come  to  me,  whose  ancestors 
for  generations  have  known  and  prac- 
tised nothing  but  the  strictest  rectitude, 
should  teach  a  lesson  to  those  who  pride 
themselves  that  their  sons  are  above 
temptation  and  do  not  therefore  need 
watchful  care  and  instruction. 

Such  experience  should  also  make 
heads  of  business  everywhere  understand 
that  checking  an  officer's  or  other  em- 
ployee's work  at  regular  intervals,  is  not 
an  unnecessary  espionage,  but  a  duty 
owing  as  much  to  the  worker  as  to  the 
work,  upon  the  proper  performing  of 
which  duty  depends  the  certain  integrity 
of  the  great  army  of  bank  and  other 
fiduciary  employees. 

But  let  my  story  teach  its  own  lesson. 


136  The  Teller's  Tale 

Returning  by  my  father's  office  from 
school  in  the  early  afternoon,  I  managed 
to  call  at  the  bank  and  ask  Mr.  Price  if  I 
might  carry  the  letters  to  the  post-office ; 
and  as  he  was  glad  to  have  me  do  this,  I 
repeated  it  frequently.  I  also  ran  on 
other  simple  errands  for  him  from  time 
to  time.  During  the  vacation  I  made  my- 
self useful  in  the  pleasant  pastime  of 
folding  circulars,  notices,  and  letters,  in 
learning  to  address  the  envelopes  in 
which  we  placed  them,  and  in  distributing 
insurance  blotters  and  other  give-away 
stationery,  and  so  forth,  all  of  which  I 
learned  to  do  rapidly  and  correctly. 

I  was  now  on  the  inside  of  the  bank,  a 
welcome  visitor  always;  and,  although  I 
was  much  interested  in  my  studies  at 
school  for  a  number  of  sessions  following, 
I  kept  in  touch  with  Mr.  Price  and  his 
work,  and  counted  myself  never  so  happy 
as  when  helping  there  and  learning  how 
the  fascinating  art  of  making  money  was 
carried  on. 

There  was  but  one  happiness  greater 
than  the  joy  of  being  in  and  about  the 


Arthur's  Story  137 

County  Bank,  and  that  was  the  posses- 
sion of  my  mother's  love.  One  summer 
I  was  ill  for  many  months  with  a  con- 
suming fever,  my  life  being  at  times  de- 
spaired of;  and  not  until  then  did  my 
mind  know,  or  my  little  heart  feel,  the 
depths  of  a  mother's  love — the  tender- 
ness, the  patience,  the  devotion,  which 
never  falters  and  never  faints.  Her  very 
life  is  ours  without  the  asking,  and  wastes 
itself  away  for  our  rescue  and  recovery. 
She  will  watch  on,  and  pray  on,  and  hope 
on,  even  to  the  very  end,  without  en- 
couragement. Ah,  yes,  heaven  lies  about 
us  in  our  infancy,  because  mother,  the 
ministering  angel,  is  there. 

I  learned  then,  for  the  first  time,  what 
love  and  prayer,  and  devotion  meant, 
and  I  prayed  God  that  my  mother's 
spirit  of  self-sacrifice  might  rest  upon  me. 

Did  God  allow  that  sickness  to  come 
in  order  that  I  might  be  drawn  closer  to 
Him  just  at  the  time  when  my  forming 
character  needed  a  stay  against  coming 
temptations,  and  chastising  preparation 
for  the  trials  which  the  future  would  bring  ? 


138  The  Teller's  Tale 

When  I  was  fifteen  years  old  I  had 
finished  the  curriculum  of  the  high  school, 
preparatory  to  entering  the  State  Uni- 
versity where  my  father  desired  that  I 
should  take  the  full  course,  our  school 
being  affiliated  with  that  institution. 
All  the  arrangements  had  been  made  for 
my  going,  when  the  dreadful  yellow  fever 
came  and  scourged  our  community  with 
sickness  and  death.  Our  people,  in  a 
burst  of  compassion,  and  supposing  that 
the  altitude  of  the  town  was  too  great  for 
.the  spread  of  this  disease,  had  invited  the 
refugees  from  other  places  to  come  and 
abide  with  us.  How  dearly  we  paid  for 
the  folly  of  ignorance ! 

You  know  what  happened  to  our 
family.  Father  was  stricken  down  at 
his  post  of  duty  ministering  to  the  sick. 
The  plague  claimed  his  life  and  that  of 
my  little  sister  Annie,  while  mother  and 
myself  survived.  How  easily  could  we 
four  have  escaped,  since  the  one  immune 
physician  of  the  place  attended  on  the 
early  cases;  but  father  would  not  leave 
the  poor,  who  could  not  get  away,  to  that 


Arthur's  Story  139 

merciless  time,  and  mother  would  not 
go  without  him. 

These  occurrences  prevented  me  from 
going  to  the  university;  for,  since  my 
chosen  calling  did  not  absolutely  require 
that  I  should  go,  I  would  not  permit 
mother  to  make  such  sacrifices  of  her 
personal  comforts  as  my  going  would 
have  entailed.  When  our  accumulated 
debts  were  balanced  against  the  small 
sum  in  the  bank  and  the  accounts  booked 
for  my  father's  professional  services,  there 
was  too  much  certainty  in  the  debts,  and 
too  little  prospect  of  realizing  on  the 
accounts,  to  justify  any  expectation  in 
the  future,  other  than  close  application 
to  business  for  myself,  and  economy  and 
self-denial  for  both  mother  and  me. 

Of  all  the  women  in  the  world  who 
need  the  protection  of  life  insurance 
against  the  pecuniary  loss  and  helpless- 
ness which  comes  to  them  in  the  death  of 
the  husband,  the  physician's  wife  needs 
it  most;  for  there  would  seem  to  be,  on 
the  part  of  his  patients,  but  one  incentive 
to  pay :  that  he,  living,  would  not  attend 


140 


The  Teller's  Tale 


them  hereafter  unless  the  existing  ac- 
counts were  paid.  Being  dead,  he  can- 
not cure  any  more;  neither  can  his 
executor  collect. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

ARTHUR'S  STORY — Continued 
In  the  Bank 

THERE  was  another  circumstance  that 
shaped  my  future.  Billie  West,  the 
collector  at  the  County  Bank,  was  among 
those  who  died  of  yellow  fever.  Two 
days  after  the  doors  were  opened  for 
business — having  been  closed  on  account 
of  the  fever — I  was  offered  the  position, 
which  I  accepted,  taking  charge  of  the 
desk  over  in  the  corner  of  the  front  room 
on  the  1 3th  day  of  October. 

To  say  that  I  liked  my  work,  would  be 
putting  it  mildly.  I  was  absolutely  in 
love  with  it  from  the  beginning.  To  say 
that  I  was  diligent  in  learning  my  duties 
and  faithful  in  performing  them,  would 
141 


142  The  Teller's  Tale 

be,  as  you  know,  only  telling  the  truth; 
for  they  voted  me  (as  one  of  them  put  it)  a 
paragon  of  perfection  and  persuasiveness, 
when  it  came  to  inducing  people  to  pay 
collections  against  them,  and — which  was 
better  —  gave  me  increased  pay  at  the 
close  of  the  first  quarter. 

In  the  position  of  collector  I  endeavored 
to  master  and  practise  the  rules  of  law 
and  the  rules  of  courtesy  or  agreeable- 
ness.  I  studied  especially  how  to  ap- 
proach people  so  as  to  make  myself 
welcome  instead  of  being  dreaded.  When 
I  presented  a  bill  the  occasion  would  most 
likely  call  for  comment  to  the  effect  that 
the  debtor  showed  splendid  taste  in  se- 
lecting such  desirable  people  to  furnish 
him  with  goods,  or  that  it  was  so  much 
more  satisfactory  to  have  one's  receipted 
bill  in  hand  at  the  very  time  of  making 
payment.  If  it  were  a  check  against  a 
deposit  of  funds,  I  would  comment,  if  it 
seemed  necessary  to  comment  at  all, 
either  on  the  good  fortune  which  the 
drawee  enjoyed  in  having  such  customers 
as  the  drawer,  or  on  the  large  and  growing 


In  the  Bank  143 

business  which  the  drawee  had  built  up 
and  the  great  success  which  awaited  him 
in  the  future.  I  found  that  I  could  be 
truthful  in  every  case  and  yet  say  some- 
thing especially  agreeable. 

In  this  position,  and  in  every  one,  I 
gave  cheer  to  the  downcast  or  disheart- 
ened, and  helped  those  who  feared  the 
darkening  clouds  of  hard  times  to  see 
the  silver  lining  of  prosperity.  Like  the 
banjo  man  in  the  song,  "I  made  myself 
welcome  wherever  I  'd  go"  by  trying  to 
give  to  the  people  I  visited  a  measure  of 
pleasure  in  excess  of  the  natural  pangs 
which  my  coming  would  engender,  leav- 
ing a  net  result  satisfactory  to  them  and 
to  me. 

My  success  as  a  collector  was  not  due 
to  any  great  penetration  or  unusual  adap- 
tability, although  I  was  apt  enough  in 
learning  where  I  set  my  head  and  heart 
together ;  but  it  was  due  to  my  constant 
study,  and  consequent  knowledge,  of 
human  nature,  and  my  respect  for  the 
same.  For  instance,  how  many  are  there 
who  seem  to  know,  or  will  admit,  that 


144  The  Teller's  Tale 

there  is  resentment  in  the  debtor's  heart 
against  the  creditor  and  his  agent.  Yet 
it  is  so.  "The  borrower  is  servant  to  the 
lender."  Yes;  and  what  servant  does 
not  hate  such  a  master. 

How  few  are  there  who  know  that 
there  is  a  pang — a  sigh  not  always  sup- 
pressed— in  the  banker's  heart  for  every 
dollar  of  deposits  withdrawn,  as  shown 
by  the  decreasing  daily  balances,  just  as 
there  is  in  the  merchant's  bosom  when 
the  cash  sales  fall  off  from  last  year's 
figures,  and  just  as  there  is  in  the  farmer's 
mind  when  the  harvest  yield  fails  to  fill 
the  barn?  But  it  is  so  in  each  case. 
And  a  wise  man  will  recognize  the  feelings 
and  conditions  of  his  fellowmen,  which  he 
is  sure  to  encounter  in  pursuing  his  voca- 
tion; and  a  wiser  one  still,  will  not  only 
respect  these  feelings  and  conditions,  but 
make  his  presence  a  source  of  satisfac- 
tion no  matter  what  his  business  is. 

A  deputy  sheriff  of  no  education,  in 
most  respects  incompetent,  was  elected 
to  succeed  his  chief  at  the  close  of  the 
term.  Some  one  asked,  Why?  The  re- 


In  the  Bank  145 

ply  was  that  he  had  made  a  friend  of 
every  man  he  had  ever  arrested.  Un- 
pleasant duties  may  be  pleasantly  per- 
formed. Conduct  can  wield  the  wand 
that  converts  pain  into  pleasure — that 
creates  joy  out  of  sorrow. 

That  first  period  of  work  at  the  bank 
were  days  full  of  youthful  hope  and 
enjoyment:  of  enjoyment  because  there 
was  agreeable  and  interesting  work  to 
do,  with  compensation  to  make  me  feel 
for  the  first  time  that  I  was  a  factor  in 
the  business  of  the  community;  and  of 
hope  in  the  future  which  was  to  bring  its 
better  work,  and  yet  better  compensa- 
tion. And  this  enjoyment  would  have 
been  less  exhilarating  had  there  been  no 
compensation  beyond  the  weekly  credit 
which  went  to  mother's  account;  not 
that  I  cared  so  much  for  the  praise  they 
bestowed  upon  me  in  saying  that  I  did 
my  work  better  than  the  others,  for  such 
praise  usually  carries  with  it  an  implied 
promise  to  increase  the  compensation, 
and  therefore  there  is  selfishness  in  the 
pleasure  it  gives.  The  feeling  I  had  was 


146  The  Teller's  Tale 

different :  I  was  glad  in  the  very  doing  of 
my  work,  when  it  was  done  well,  whether 
it  ever  came  under  the  eye  of  another  or 
not. 

My  hopes  were  not  deferred;  neither 
were  they  delayed,  for  fruition  came  all 
along  the  way,  keeping  pace  with  my 
accomplishments.  At  the  close  of  the 
second  year  I  was  promoted  to  the  posi- 
tion of  bookkeeper  (the  larger  part  of 
which  work  I  had  been  doing  for  poor 
Mr.  Ross  for  more  than  a  year),  and 
moved  to  the  long,  standing  desk  by  the 
window. 

I  have  learned  not  to  have  much  pa- 
tience with  the  complaining  young  man 
who  says  the  world  does  not  appreciate 
him.  The  only  light  you  can  hide  is  the 
one  under  a  bushel ;  and  the  only  worker 
who  will  fail  to  find  work  equal  to  his 
capacity  is  he  who  hides  himself  from 
business  and  business  men.  The  reason 
of  this  is,  that,  notwithstanding  the 
rapidly  increasing  population,  men  are 
the  scarcest  commodity  on  earth. 

Albert  Ward,  who,  as  you  know,  was 


In  the  Bank 


my  intimate  friend,  had  succeeded  to  the 
position  of  teller  but  a  short  while  before, 
having  come  up  by  promotion  like  my- 
self. In  those  first  years  I  looked  up  to 
him  as  my  model  of  a  business  young 
man.  We  worked  and  ate  together ;  and 
much  of  the  time  slept  together,  either 
at  his  home  or  mine. 


CHAPTER  XX 

ARTHUR'S  STORY — Continued 

Temptations 

A  LBERT  was  ambitious  and  confident ; 
*»•  and  his  ambition  became  vaulting 
in  its  character.  His  confidence  and 
imagination  carried  him  to  the  point  of 
believing  that  he  could  accomplish  what- 
ever he  undertook,  however  chimerical 
might  be  the  undertaking.  His  virtues 
at  first  were  large,  and  these  made  him 
lovable.  His  vices  were  only  in  the 
mind,  and  did  no  harm.  But,  ' '  As  a  man 
thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he  " ;  and  the 
mind  and  heart  are  such  close  neighbors 
that  the  guest  of  the  one  is  likely  to  be- 
come the  friend  of  the  other;  therefore, 
whoever  has  evil  in  his  mind  should  cast 
148 


Temptations  149 

it  out,  lest  it  take  possession  of  his  heart 
also.  Evil  thoughts  become  evil  deeds. 

Albert's  principal  ambition  was  to  be- 
come rich,  and,  of  course,  as  rapidly  as 
possible.  How  often  is  it  that  the  over- 
cultivation  of  a  virtue — like  ambition,  we 
will  say — creates  a  vice.  In  fact,  are 
not  most  vices  only  the  offsprings  of 
over-cultivated  virtues?  Listen  to  the 
fable  of  the  thorn  bush:  It  was  once  an 
apple  tree  and  bore  the  best  and  largest 
apples,  and  in  great  numbers.  Its  owner 
was  not  satisfied  with  this  abundance, 
but  tried  by  cultivation  to  force  it  to 
bear  more  apples,  and  larger  apples; 
when  lo,  the  apples  came  not  with  re- 
turning spring,  but,  in  their  place,  thorns ! 

The  work  of  Albert  and  myself  con- 
tinued to  be  pleasant ;  but  as  the  months 
rolled  on  our  growing  desires  developed 
much  faster  than  our  hopes,  because 
expectation  did  not  warrant  the  belief 
that  our  positions  with  the  bank  would 
bring  us  more  than  a  reasonable  com- 
petency for  at  least  several  years  to 
come.  Desire  is  a  dangerous  quality  of 


i5o  The  Teller's  Tale 

mind  when  unsupported  by  expectation, 
for  it  is  only  out  of  the  two  that  hope 
is  born.  And  if  desire  becomes  strong 
enough  to  arouse  determination  to  the 
point  of  forcing  hope,  we  may  expect  a 
positive  result  of  good  or  evil — according 
to  the  nature  of  the  desire. 

Our  aspirations  were  modest  and  mod- 
erate at  first ;  but  they  became  poisoned 
with  greed,  if  not  positively  unlawful, 
under  the  influence  of  the  invitations 
which  every  mail  brought  us  to  indulge 
in  the  "sure  thing"  speculations,  at 
bucket  shops,  in  promoters'  offices,  and 
on  the  exchanges,  including  every  kind 
of  stock  and  other  gambling. 

How  hard  it  is  to  be  content  to  earn 
two  dollars  a  day  when  pressed  with 
assurances  that  a  hundred,  or  even  a 
thousand,  may  be  more  easily  "earned." 

Did  I  say  offers  to  speculate?  I 
should  have  said  to  steal;  for  what  pro- 
moter-gambler would  be  interested  in 
the  bank  clerk  if  his  own  little  savings 
marked  the  limit  of  his  investment  ? 

Why  do  not  the  clergy  and  the  good 


Temptations  151 

men  and  women,  who  lifted  their  voices 
to  save  the  country  from  the  curse  of  the 
Louisiana  State  Lottery,  step  into  the 
breach  and  rescue  the  bank  clerks,  and 
those  in  similar  positions,  from  their 
peril — by  having  the  privilege  of  the 
mails  denied  to  these  baneful  things,  and 
by  having  contracts  for  watered  stock 
and  fictitious  values  declared  illegal  and 
criminal  ? 

Or  have  these  forces  for  good  ex- 
hausted themselves  in  failure?  And 
shall  we  be  compelled  to  admit  that  the 
public  conscience  is  less  acute  now  than 
then,  and  that  vice  is  stronger  than  ever 
before  ? 

We  banished  this  lottery,  which  never 
deceived  us  into  believing  that  it  offered 
us  more  than  a  gambler's  chance,  and 
which  only  made  its  monthly  demands 
on  the  gambling  instinct;  and,  in  its 
stead,  we  have  a  thousand  others,  whose 
doors  are  always  open,  whose  beguilings 
never  cease,  whose  lyings  would  cause 
Sapphira  to  blush  for  very  shame,  and 
whose  allurements  would  make  the  Sirens 


152  The  Teller's  Tale 

weep  for  envy.  They  are  not  lotteries, 
but  worse,  giving  not  even  a  chance. 
When  they  give  anything  it  is  for  the 
purpose  of  leading  us  to  destruction. 

Is  it  not  an  open  national  shame  that, 
instead  of  protecting  the  people  and 
their  mail  against  these  frauds,  public 
officials  often  participate  in  them,  or  levy 
blackmail  for  allowing  them  to  go  on  ? 

At  first,  I  threw  these  gambling  prop- 
ositions into  the  waste-basket  without 
reading  them,  and  generally  without 
breaking  the  seals;  and  Albert  told  me 
he  did  the  same.  But  I  noticed,  about 
the  time  I  took  charge  of  the  bank's 
books,  that  he  preserved  his  for  careful 
reading.  Then  he  began  to  tell  me  about 
them  and  their  offers.  Presently,  I  began 
to  save  mine  also;  and  in  the  evenings 
we  would  read  them  over  and  discuss 
them  together.  We  saw  so  much  money 
every  day,  and  observed  how  much  some 
people  had,  and  how  easily  they  seem  to 
acquire  it.  In  contrast,  was  the  little  we 
had  and  the  slow  process  of  acquiring 
more. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

ARTHUR'S  STORY — Continued 

Practising  to  Deceive 

DY  and  by  I  discovered  that  Albert 
J— '  had  already  invested  a  few  dollars, 
and  with  results  quite  encouraging.  He 
was  anxious  that  I  should  join  him,  for, 
as  the  circulars  all  explained,  the  pros- 
pects were  much  greater  for  large  sums, 
per  each  dollar  invested,  than  for  small 
sums.  To  this  specious  argument  I 
yielded,  and  took  the  first  downward 
step  by  investing  with  him.  Not  that 
the  sum  invested  amounted  to  much.  It 
was  very  small,  only  a  few  dollars ;  and, 
being  my  own  money,  its  loss  could  harm 
no  one  but  myself.  But  it  evidenced  a 
disposition  of  discontent  with  the  natural 
153 


i54  The  Teller's  Tale 

order  of  things,  and  a  desire,  or  at  least  a 
willingness,  to  depart  from  the  straight 
and  narrow  way  of  business.  It  showed 
that  I  was  growing  tired  of  the  toil  which 
never  ceases,  and  which  brings  such  slow 
reward. 

I  was  not  free  from  misgivings  at  the 
step  I  had  taken,  and,  for  that  reason, 
did  not  bring  any  enthusiasm  into  the 
partnership  which  Albert  and  I  thus 
formed  for  growing  rich  in  a  fortnight. 
The  truth  is  that  I  was  nursing  my 
doubts  and  looking  for  light,  like  a  con- 
victed sinner  at  a  protracted  meeting. 
Albert,  on  the  contrary,  was  very  active 
in  forwarding  our  joint  interests  by 
taking  a  little  of  any  number  of  "good 
things"  which  were  offered  us  from 
various  sources. 

The  business  went  on  for  a  few  weeks, 
alternately  making  and  losing,  until  I 
was  informed  by  Albert  one  day  that  my 
savings,  which  had  been  put  into  his 
hands,  were  exhausted,  and  that,  in 
order  to  make  good  my  part  of  a  balance 
due  on  over-exhausted  margins  (how 


Practising  to  Deceive         155 

clever  of  the  broker  to  pay  the  margins 
for  us!),  it  would  be  necessary  to  over- 
draw my  account  with  the  bank,  thereby 
appropriating  a  portion  of  the  bank's 
money  to  my  use.  Albert  explained  how 
this  had  become  necessary,  and  he  read 
a  beautifully  written  letter  from  the 
broker  giving  the  most  plausible  reasons 
why  we  had  not  profited  by  that  time, 
assuring  us  that  fortune  was  then  in 
sight,  and  deploring  (for  our  sake,  he 
said),  in  advance,  any  disposition  or 
influence  which  might  cause  us  to 
"weaken"  on  the  very  eve  of  success! 

I  thought  over  the  matter  until  I  re- 
turned from  luncheon  that  day,  where, 
instead  of  the  steak  and  eggs  of  Aunt 
Betty's  chop-house,  I  saw,  alternately, 
the  large  check  which  should  be  my  half 
of  the  prospective  profits  from  our  in- 
vestment, and  the  red-ink  figures  which 
were  to  represent  my  defalcation  that 
night.  I  was  converted  at  that  lunch 
table.  In  ten  minutes  after  I  left  there 
I  had  borrowed  from  a  friend  an  amount 
necessary  to  discharge  my  matured  obli- 


156  The  Teller's  Tale 

gations  in  the  partnership  with  Albert, 
and  had  placed  the  money  in  his  hands. 
By  great  persuasion,  I  also  induced  him 
to  agree  to  retire  from  the  business. 

Never  since  that  hour  have  I  been 
strongly  tempted,  on  my  own  account, 
to  engage  in  any  character  of  speculation. 
I  have  ever  since  been  satisfied  that 
total  abstinence  from  speculative  trans- 
actions is  a  part  of  the  banker's  moral 
character.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  to 
erect  a  different  standard  for  others,  for 
the  same  rule  should  apply  to  every  man. 
I  only  wish  to  emphasize  it  as  a  neces- 
sary, cardinal  virtue  of  him  who  sustains 
a  fiduciary  relationship  to  his  employer 
or  the  public. 

For  the  following  two  years  or  more, 
Albert  and  I  continued  our  work  in  the 
accustomed  way,  and,  as  you  know,  gave 
satisfaction  to  the  bank  and  its  patrons. 
We  also  took  part  in  the  social  diversions 
of  the  place.  But  Albert  was  not  the 
same.  He  had  been  confident  and  happy 
at  the  office,  and  the  very  life  of  society. 
He  now  became  anxious  and  nervous  in 


Practising  to  Deceive         157 

business,  indifferent  to  society  and  its 
obligations,  and,  generally,  ill  at  ease.  I 
can  now  see  reasons  for  the  changes 
which  had  come  over  him  which  I  did 
not  then  understand. 

In  the  meantime,  I  was  happy  in  the 
love  of  my  mother,  and  well  contented 
with  my  work.  While  I  had  troubles  of 
my  own  (who  does  not  have?),  I  had  no 
cause  to  complain  of  Albert,  for  toward 
me  he  was  as  kind  and  thoughtful  as  a 
brother. 

About  a  year  after  our  little  spurt 
at  speculation,  several  banking  failures 
occurred  in  two  or  three  of  our  large 
cities,  while  there  were  a  number  of 
failures  in  small  banking  towns.  As  will 
be  remembered,  most  of  these  failures 
occurred  from  the  dishonesty  of  trusted 
employees.  It  occurred  the  same  way  in 
New  York  that  it  did  elsewhere. 

The  strangest  part  about  the  trans- 
actions was  the  helplessness  of  the  banks 
and  their  inability  to  so  conduct  their 
business  as  to  provide  against  the  repe- 
tition of  such  occurrences.  Any  book- 


158  The  Teller's  Tale 

keeper,  or  any  teller  in  a  bank,  acting 
either  independently  or  with  another, 
could  transfer  a  portion  of  the  credit  of 
an  inactive  account  and  make  it  appear 
to  belong  to  himself  or  another,  and  in 
that  way,  place  an  almost  unlimited 
amount  of  funds  within  his  reach,  with- 
out the  fear  of  immediate  detection. 
With  hundreds  or  thousands  of  deposit- 
ors, many  of  them  unknown  to  the 
president  and  cashier,  it  was  found  to 
be  impossible  for  the  bank's  officers  or 
stockholders  to  check  up  the  work  of  sub- 
ordinate employees  and  know  the  condition 
of  the  bank. 

You  are  familiar  with  the  agitation  of 
the  question  of  how  to  protect  the  banks 
against  dishonest  employees,  and  the  law 
which  was  passed  for  that  purpose. 
Though  the  first  of  the  kind  ever  passed 
by  any  Legislature,  it  is  a  wise  law.  Had 
it  not  been  passed,  dishonest  employees, 
having  the  easy  methods  of  others 
pointed  out  to  them,  would  have  been 
tempted  to  prey  upon  the  banks  from 
one  end  of  the  land  to  the  other;  and 


Practising  to  Deceive         159 

depositors  and  stockholders  would  have 
suffered  greatly,  in  spite  of  themselves. 
Whereas,  now,  by  observing  the  law,  the 
depositor  may  protect  his  money,  and 
the  stockholder  may  save  both  his  money 
and  the  morals  of  his  employees. 

Long  after  the  stir  over  the  bank  fail- 
ures, and  the  agitation,  and  passing  of 
the  law,  I  recall  that  Albert  was  very 
much  interested,  in  fact,  agitated,  not 
only  at  the  failures  and  defalcations,  but 
also  at  the  proposition  to  apply  a  reme- 
dial law,  such  as  was  passed.  I  recalled 
that  he  was  busier  than  usual,  and  took 
some  of  my  work  off  my  hands,  giving 
me  opportunity  for  social  pleasures  which 
had  been  denied  me  in  the  busy  season. 

We  inaugurated  the  new  system  under 
the  publication  law,  on  April  ist,  and 
required  every  depositor  to  come  to  the 
bank  within  a  month,  and  receive  the 
printed  rules  and  have  them  pasted  in 
his  pass-book  for  his  guidance.  There 
were  a  few  who  did  not  come  in  person 
but  entrusted  their  business  to  others. 
Some  communicated  their  wishes  and 


160  The  Teller's  Tale 

sent  their  pass-books  by  mail,  addressing 
their  letters  to  Mr.  Price,  or  to  Albert 
or  myself. 

I  remember  distinctly  the  letter  which 
came  from  Mrs.  Wilmot  addressed  to 
Albert,  enclosing  her  pass-book  which 
was  to  be  supplanted  by  a  new  one  duly 
signed  and  attested.  I  did  not  see  the 
new  one  as  it  went  out  in  the  mail. 

I  remember  also  the  occasion  of  the 
visit  of  Mrs.  Wilmot  and  Miss  Alice  to 
the  bank,  when  the  checks  for  Colonel 
Wilmot 's  life-insurance  policies  were  de- 
posited, and  how,  after  having  this  at- 
tended to  by  Albert,  Miss  Alice  had  me 
see  that  it  was  properly  done.  Well  do  I 
recall,  also,  the  expression  of  trust  which 
filled  her  eyes,  as  she  seemed  to  accept 
my  judgment  with  such  confidence. 


CHAPTER  XXII 

ARTHUR'S  STORY — Continued 

A  Tangled  Web 

ON  July  1 4th,  fifteen  months  after  the 
law  was  put  into  operation,  Albert 
was  absent  from  his  accustomed  place  at 
the  teller's  wicket,  the  word  coming  that 
he  was  confined  to  his  room  with  a  chill. 
I  took  his  place,  and,  as  it  was  the  dull 
season,  easily  performed  his  duties  and 
my  own.  I  called  to  see  him  the  follow- 
ing evening,  and  the  next,  and  so  on  to 
the  end  of  the  week.  He  was  despondent 
from  the  first,  and  more  so  on  the  seventh 
day,  when  Dr.  Baird  pronounced  his  case 
typhoid  fever.  His  severe  illness  from 
the  start,  and  sad  death,  are  fresh  in  the 

minds  of  us  all ;  but  sadder  to  me,  by  far, 
ii 

161 


162  The  Teller's  Tale 

than  to  any  other  person  on  earth,  for 
the  reasons  I  am  about  to  give. 

When  I  entered  his  room  two  days  be- 
fore his  case  became  hopeless,  he  said  to 
his  mother,  after  greeting  me,  "Go,  my 
dear,  and  rest  a  little,  while  Arthur  sits 
by  my  side  and  tells  me  the  news. 

"Arthur,"  said  he,  when  we  were  quite 
alone,  "I  have  a  great  secret  lying  on  my 
heart,  which  must  be  known  to  you  alone. 
I  want  you  to  promise,  before  I  begin  to 
tell,  that  you  will  hold  it  sacred  within 
your  own  bosom  as  long  as  mother  lives, 
and  not  divulge  it  then  save  for  your  own 
protection;  and  that  you  will,  so  far  as 
possible,  undo  the  great  wrongs  I  have 
done  to  others." 

As  he  turned  his  hectic  face  to  mine, 
and  grasped  my  hands  in  his  burning 
palms,  speaking  with  a  voice  already 
weak  and  unsteady,  I  realized  for  the 
first  time  that  my  friend  had  fallen 
among  the  shadows  which  separate  time 
from  eternity,  bearing  burdens  more 
frightful  than  death  itself.  Before  either 
of  us  had  spoken  again,  my  mind  re- 


I  used  the  money  of  the  bank,  and  lost,  time  after  time. 


A  Tangled  Web  163 

viewed  all  the  circumstances  of  his  life 
known  to  me,  and  I  felt,  as  by  intuition, 
the  full  force  of  all  he  had  to  say.  Readily 
and  solemnly,  I  gave  the  requested  prom- 
ise, reserving  the  right  to  make  a  full  dis- 
closure to  you,  in  case  I  should  need  your 
services. 

Albert  continued,  "You  remember, 
Arthur,  our  little  dash  on  the  'Boards,' 
and  how  you  conquered  the  temptation 
to  speculate  so  easily  ?  Well ;  from  that 
hour  of  your  triumph,  our  lives  have 
been  diverging  at  an  ever  -  increasing 
angle. 

"I  used  the  money  of  the  bank,  and 
lost,  time  after  time;  each  investment 
being  made  in  the  vain  hope  of  winning 
enough  to  pay  it  all  back  again.  Oh, 
how  inviting  have  been  the  green  fields 
into  which  I  have  gone  for  fruit,  to  find 
nothing  but  leaves!  At  first  it  was 
copper,  in  which  Daly  and  Clark  made 
their  fortunes,  promising  five  hundred 
per  cent. !  After  that  came  other  things ; 
and  finally,  Gold  Coin,  the  last  of  my 
plunges,  which  was  more  of  an  invest- 


164  The  Teller's  Tale 

ment  proper  than  any  of  the  others. 
You  will  find  all  those  certificates  in  my 
private  box  in  the  vault.  I  yet  have 
every  faith  and  confidence  in  some  of 
these  stocks,  and  only  wish  I  could  live 
to  see  them  declare  the  first  dividends 
and  win  me  back  my  self-respect  and  the 
money  of  others  which  I  have  lost. 

"I  never  intended  to  use  the  money  of 
widows  and  orphans  and  the  helpless. 
But  when  the  publication  law  was  put 
into  force,  I  was  compelled  to  take  the 
money  of  non-residents  and  ignorant 
home  people,  to  pay  back  the  abstrac- 
tions already  made  from  intelligent  local 
depositors  who  would  watch  the  publica- 
tions and  complain  if  their  accounts  were 
incorrect. 

"This  is  the  commission  I  place  upon 
you:  Take  this  property  and  hold  it  in 
trust  for  those  I  have  betrayed;  keep 
them  in  ignorance  of  the  true  condition 
of  their  accounts  until  a  sale  of  some 
successful  stock  will  reimburse  them.  In 
my  safety  box,  you  will  find  a  statement 
showing  the  names  of  those  whose  funds 


A  Tangled  Web  165 

I  have  taken  and  the  amounts  taken 
from  each.  In  all,  it  amounts  to  nearly 
sixty  thousand  dollars.  I  know  I  am 
asking  a  good  deal  of  you,  and  that  in 
yielding  to  my  request  you  put  in  jeop- 
ardy your  good  name  and  future  safety. 

"But  remember  that  a  discovery  of 
these  transactions,  at  this  time,  would 
grieve  my  mother  to  certain  death,  and 
perhaps  ruin  the  bank,  while  conceal- 
ment may  mean  fortune  to  you  and 
others,  and  a  preservation  of  our  good 
name,  with  only  the  possibility  of  damage 
to  you.  I  would  not  ask  this  of  you,  did 
I  not  believe  it  would  be  for  your  final 
good.  I  want  you  to  have  the  balance 
of  the  stocks  after  selling  enough  to  pay 
our  depositors  the  full  amount  due  them. 
We  have  already  struck  a  small  vein  in 
Gold  Coin  and  are  sure  to  run  into  the 
great  solid  layers  that  made  millions  for 
our  neighbors  of  the  Independent.  When 
this  is  done  your  fortune  will  be  assured. 

"I  know  that  in  making  this  request 
I  ask  more  than  I  have  any  right  to 
ask.  I  know  that  in  granting  it  you  will 


166  The  Teller's  Tale 

conceal  from  your  employers  facts  which, 
ordinarily,  they  have  the  right  to  know. 
You  also  conceal  from  your  depositors 
facts  about  the  bank's  true  condition 
which  they  have  the  right  to  know,  and 
you  fail  to  disclose  to  certain  depositors 
losses  they  have  sustained,  a  knowledge 
of  which  would  cause  them  to  change 
their  methods  of  living. 

"I  have  thought  of  all  this,  and  more. 
I  know  it  is  contrary  to  our  teaching  that 
any  one  should  do  evil  that  good  may 
follow.  But  certainly  you  will  not  hurt 
any  one  seriously,  if  at  all,  by  granting 
my  request.  No  additional  losses  are 
likely  to  occur.  The  bank's  management 
is  now  perfect,  and  its  assets  will  suffer 
no  further  impairment.  If  you  should 
disclose  the  real  condition  of  the  things 
and  make  it  known  to  the  public,  con- 
fidence in  the  Bowers  law  would  be 
shaken,  and  a  panic  would  result,  to  the 
serious  injury  of  the  bank  and  the  busi- 
ness community,  not  counting  the  dam- 
age which  would  be  done  all  over  the 
State. 


A  Tangled  Web 


167 


"  I  make  these  requests  as  a  dying  man, 
for  I  feel  that  I  shall  never  rise  from  this 
bed.  I  leave  in  your  hands  and  keeping, 
mother's  happiness  and  my  good  name, 
and  I  hope  and  trust  you  will  guard  both 
with  all  your  ability  as  long  as  you  can 
do  so  without  great  harm  to  yourself  or 
others;  and  may  God  bless  you  in  all 
that  you  do." 


CHAPTER  XXIII 

ARTHUR'S  STORY — Concluded 
Conflicts  of  Conscience 

THIS  was  the  pitiful  and  pathetic 
story  which  he  related — pathetic, 
because  it  disclosed  a  sorrowful  tragedy 
of  suffering  and  sin;  pitiful,  because  he 
had  no  power  to  retrace  the  steps  of  a 
misspent  life  and  blot  out  the  wrongs  he 
had  done.  His  lost  Lenore — the  inno- 
cence and  honesty  of  childhood — had 
gone  out  of  his  life  forever. 

To  say  that  I  was  shocked  at  the  con- 
fession and  its  disclosures  would  be  stat- 
ing the  case  mildly.  I  was  overwhelmed, 
not  only  at  the  sudden  and  wholly  un- 
expected knowledge  which  his  words 
conveyed,  but  also  at  the  critical,  contra- 

168 


Conflicts  of  Conscience       169 

dictory,  and  altogether  unenviable  posi- 
tion I  occupied,  as  his  friend,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  the  servant  and  trustee  of  the 
bank  and  others. 

Doubts,  fears,  resolution,  and  irre- 
solution, with  other  conflicting  emotions, 
surged  through  my  brain  with  the  force 
and  rapidity  of  electrical  discharges ;  and 
so  powerful  were  the  influences  of  one 
moment  of  time  that  I  seemed  to  run  the 
gamut  of  human  experiences  and  reason- 
ing in  less  time  than  I  can  tell  you,  and  to 
have  found  myself  transferred  from  the 
field  of  earnest,  but  youthful  endeavor, 
to  the  work  and  responsibility  of  age — a 
burden  which  God  alone  in  His  wisdom 
and  power  could  have  helped  me  bear. 

What  could  I  do?  To  have  refused 
would  have  been  cruel  and  inhuman;  to 
agree  was  kind,  but  criminal.  I  agreed. 
At  Albert's  request,  I  wrote  down  his 
statement  that  night  and  submitted  it 
next  morning  for  his  signature.  He  in- 
sisted that  I  should  do  this  for  my  pro- 
tection hereafter. 

When  I  entered  the  door  of  the  bank 


1 70  The  Teller's  Tale 

after  Albert's  death,  I  had  that  old  feel- 
ing of  disquietude  which  I  felt  when  I 
was  about  to  overdraw  my  account  to 
continue  a  speculative  contract,  and  in 
a  greater  degree.  But  having  promised 
him,  in  his  dying  hour,  that  his  secret 
and  good  name  should  have  my  protec- 
tion, I  intended  to  'tread  the  winepress 
alone,'  as  I  have  done,  rather  than  break 
faith  with  the  dead. 

I  at  once  inspected  Albert's  invest- 
ments, and  was  disgusted  and  disheart- 
ened to  look  upon  the  many  snares 
which  had  been  set  for  his  entrapment, 
and  with  what  worthless  trash  his  box 
was  filled.  His  Arkansas  zinc  and  Gold 
Coin  were  absolutely  the  only  stocks 
which  he  had  from  which  I  could  have 
any  reasonable  expectation  of  realizing 
any  collection  whatever,  at  any  time,  and 
the  prospects  for  these  were  not  flattering. 
They  have  since  proven  to  be  absolutely 
worthless.  Albert's  confidence  was  but 
the  drowning  man  catching  at  a  straw; 
his  hope,  the  manifestation  of  a  ruling 
passion  strong  in  death. 


Conflicts  of  Conscience       171 

To  assume  the  necessary  false  position 
which  he  had  occupied ;  to  take  his  place 
as  deceiver  of  employers  and  customers; 
to  adopt  the  false  entries  made  by  him; 
and  with  no  better  hope  that  the  end  of 
it  would  be  peace  and  honor  than  the 
mere  chances  that  the  two  speculative 
stocks  would  bring  a  windfall,  where 
scores  of  others  had  failed — these  were 
considerations  to  stagger  a  stronger  heart 
than  mine ;  and  but  for  the  courage  that 
comes  from  desperation  I  should  never 
have  withstood  the  ordeal. 

There  are  other  things  of  which  Albert 
spoke,  which  were  too  sacred  to  be 
written  then,  and  are  too  precious  now 
for  the  ears  of  even  a  sympathizing  pub- 
lic— of  love  unrequited,  and  of  the  am- 
bition which  lay  at  the  bottom  of  all  his 
dealings. 

Let  us  draw  the  curtain  of  charity  over 
his  faults  and  commend  his  virtues. 

The  light  will  surely  break  for  me  at 
last.  So  long  as  Albert's  mother  lives, 
there  will  be  a  barrier  between  myself  and 
freedom,  which  cannot  be  broken  down; 


172  The  Teller's  Tale 

but  I  hope  and  trust  that  I  may  live  until 
Providence  provides  for  my  deliverance. 
Whatever  the  future  has  in  store  for  me, 
I  have  the  consolation  of  knowing  that 
my  sins  have  not  been  selfish  ones,  and 
that  I  have  been  guided  by  the  spirit  of 
charity,  although  the  letter  of  the  law 
condemns  me. 

The  End  of  Arthur's  Story 


CHAPTER  XXIV 

IN    THE    TOILS 

r  HUNG  on  every  word  of  this  narra- 
*  tive,  and  could  think  of  nothing  else 
while  it  was  being  told,  and  for  days 
afterwards.  I  was  carried  off  my  feet, 
and  off  my  head  as  well,  into  an  atmos- 
phere of  astonishment  and  delight.  In 
but  one  story-book  even — A  Tale  of  Two 
Cities — had  I  read  of  such  self-sacrifice 
for  friendship's  sake.  Never  before  had 
I  seen  it  exemplified  in  the  flesh.  Here 
was  a  young  man  who,  out  of  mere 
friendship  and  camaraderie,  willingly  took 
the  place  of  a  criminal  and  allowed  him- 
self to  be  adjudged  a  felon  by  the  com- 
munity and  the  State.  He  not  only  put 
aside  every  selfish  motive  that  prompted 
him  to  reveal  the  guilty  one,  but  likewise 
173 


174  The  Teller's  Tale 

caused  the  deepest  of  pain  to  his  mother 
and  others  who  loved  him.  He  justified 
himself  by  saying  that  time  would  ap- 
prove his  course,  and  that  his  relatives 
and  friends  would  then  forget  that  they 
had  sorrowed  for  his  sake.  Certainly,  if 
he  had  revealed  the  author  of  the  wrong, 
Mrs.  Ward  would  have  gone  to  her  grave 
broken-hearted.  In  the  meantime,  he 
assured  his  mother  that  all  would  be  well 
with  him  in  the  end,  and  that  no  blot 
would  be  left  on  their  name.  She  be- 
lieved in  him,  and  this  abiding  faith  was 
her  sole  consolation. 

Arthur  St.  John  had  been  convicted  of 
furnishing  untrue  statements  of  deposit- 
ors' accounts  for  publication,  and  was 
awaiting  his  trial  on  the  charge  of  em- 
bezzlement. He  had  not  testified  in  his 
behalf;  and,  indeed,  it  would  have  been 
useless,  as  he  could  have  done  little  less 
than  plead  guilty  to  the  charge.  ' '  Silence 
gives  consent,"  everybody  said;  and  his 
closest  friends  could  see  but  little  reason 
for  going  through  the  form  of  an  appeal 
to  the  higher  court,  thereby  consuming 


In  the  Toils  175 

the  small  property  which  his  mother 
possessed. 

Nevertheless,  the  day  following  his 
narration  to  me,  I  went  to  the  court- 
house and  entered  a  motion  for  a  new 
trial,  which  the  court  continued,  in  order 
(as  was  intimated)  to  allow  the  larger 
punishment  for  the  more  serious  of- 
fence (embezzlement)  to  supersede  the 
smaller  punishment  which,  under  the 
law,  would  follow  the  conviction  already 
had.  I  also  signed  Arthur's  bond  in  the 
sum  of  twenty  thousand  dollars,  and  be- 
came responsible  for  his  appearance  in 
court  when  required  to  be  there. 

Upon  being  released  from  confinement, 
Arthur  went  immediately  home  to  his 
mother,  remaining  there  and  denying 
himself  to  every  one  save  a  few  friends, 
to  none  of  whom  did  he  then  even  inti- 
mate the  guilt  of  Albert.  And,  as  he 
made  no  claim  of  innocence,  they  won- 
dered that  I  should  have  caused  his 
release. 

Alice  Wilmot  was  frequently  at  the  St. 
John  home,  before  and  after  Arthur's 


176  The  Teller's  Tale 

release,  and  was  the  one  source  of  good 
cheer  which  sustained  Mrs.  St.  John  dur- 
ing all  the  trying  times  that  fell  upon 
her.  She  said  long  afterwards  that  she 
believed  with  a  woman's  intuition  that 
Arthur  was  innocent.  The  fact  that 
Arthur  had  apparently  taken  advantage 
of  the  absence  of  herself  and  her  mother 
to  misappropriate  and  embezzle  their 
money,  did  not  seem  to  have  any  effect 
on  her  bearing  toward  the  family. 

The  trial  of  the  case  of  John  M.  Parker, 
Guardian  of  Alice  Wilmot,  against  the 
bank,  came  on  to  be  heard;    the  bank 
pleaded  the  law  which  freed  it  from  lia- 
bility after  having  published  for  thirty 
days,    without    objection,    the    balance 
shown  by  the  books  to  be  due. 
The  guardian  replied: 
i.  That  the  death  of  Mrs.  Wilmot  be- 
fore   the    publication    was    com- 
pleted,   and   the    descent   of   her 
estate  to  her  daughter,  a  minor, 
took  the  case  from  under  the  op- 
eration   of    the    statute,    thereby 
rendering  the  bank  liable. 


In  the  Toils  177 

2.  (a)  No  printed  notice  was  delivered 
to  Mrs.  Wilmot  with  her  pass-book, 
as  required  by  Section  4  of  the  law ; 
(b)  Neither  was  any  notice  ever  pub- 
lished in  the  community  in  which 
she  resided  at  the  time,  as  required 
by  Section  7. 

(Although  not  mentioned  before  in 
this  narrative,  Mrs.  Wilmot  and  Alice 
went  to  reside  in  Boston  for  the  comple- 
tion of  the  musical  education  of  the  latter, 
soon  after  the  death  of  Colonel  Wilmot. 
Mrs.  Wilmot  died  there  some  time 
afterward.  Alice  continued  at  the  con- 
servatory, and  only  returned  after  the  de- 
falcation of  Arthur  was  discovered.  She 
not  being  yet  of  age,  a  guardian  was  ap- 
pointed for  her,  to  bring  suit  against  the 
bank  for  the  money  embezzled  from  her 
mother's  account.) 

The  Circuit  Court  said  that  the  plea 
was  bad;  that  the  rights  of  minors  were 
not  exempted  by  the  statute  from  its 
terms,  and  that  the  court  could  not  make 
exceptions  of  its  own.  The  court  also 
declined  to  hold  that  the  bank  was 


1 78  The  Teller's  Tale 

required  to  run  down  with  its  publica- 
tions every  depositor  who  should  change 
his  residence  or  choose  to  reside  in  a  dis- 
tant place. 

Three  weeks  afterwards,  the  Supreme 
Court  reversed  the  decision  of  the  Circuit 
Court,  deciding  that  the  law  of  bank 
publications,  inasmuch  as  it  failed  to 
protect  the  rights  of  infants,  was,  as  to 
them,  contrary  to  that  section  of  the 
State  Constitution  which  declared  that, 
"the  property  of  all  persons  shall  be  en- 
titled to  the  equal  protection  of  the  law," 
and  that  ' '  no  person  shall  be  deprived  of 
his  property  without  due  process  of  law." 

The  courts  said  that  the  law,  so  far  as 
it  related  to  infants,  was  not  of  practical 
application,  and  the  forfeiting  of  their 
property  by  means  thereof  did  not  con- 
stitute "due  process  of  law." 

Furthermore,  inasmuch  as  the  law 
referred  to  the  person  making  the  de- 
posit, and  not  to  his  executor,  adminis- 
trator, heirs,  or  assigns,  it  could  not  be 
extended  to  them,  whether  adults  or 
infants;  furthermore,  that  a  rule  which 


In  the  Toils  179 

should  undertake  to  include  even  an 
adult  heir,  would  not  be  constitutional 
unless  the  terms  on  which  the  money  had 
been  deposited  were  made  known  to 
them  and  an  opportunity  given  them  to 
protect  their  rights,  for  the  reason  that 
such  proceeding  would  not  be  due  process 
of  law. 

The  Supreme  Court  also  sustained  the 
plea  that  the  publications  made  would 
not  affect  Mrs.  Wilmot  (if  living)  or  her 
daughter,  because  neither  Section  4  nor 
Section  7  had  been  complied  with  by  the 
bank,  which  twofold  failure  on  its  part 
was  fatal  to  its  plea  for  a  discharge. 

This  was  correct:  the  pass-book  fur- 
nished Mrs.  Wilmot  did  not  have  the 
rules  of  the  bank  pasted  in  it,  and  no 
notice  was  given  her  as  required  by  Sec- 
tion 4  of  the  bank  publication  law;  on 
which  facts  the  court  commented,  as 
showing  a  premeditated  design  on  the 
part  of  some  one  to  defraud  her. 

As  to  the  non-liability  of  the  bank  to 
adults  who  live  in  the  community  where 
the  publications  are  made,  the  Supreme 


i8o  The  Teller's  Tale 

Court  held  that  the  law  was  constitu- 
tional— being  due  process  of  law  and 
practical,  as  to  them.  The  court  said 
that  those  adults  who  signed  the  con- 
tract of  deposit  and  agreed  to  be  bound 
by  the  rules,  would  be  bound,  no  matter 
where  they  resided,  while  those  who  re- 
sided in  the  community  would  be  bound 
by  publications,  duly  made,  whether 
they  had  signed  a  contract  or  not. 


CHAPTER  XXV 

WEEPING   AT   NIGHT 

the  date  of  that  decision  there 
was  no  hope  whatever  for  any 
abatement  of  the  prosecution  of  the  case 
of  embezzlement  against  Arthur  St.  John. 
Most  of  the  sixty  thousand  dollars  had 
been  embezzled  under  such  circum- 
stances that  the  depositors  would  have 
to  lose  it,  according  to  the  decision  of 
the  court,  and  it  represented  mainly  the 
savings  for  which  poor  old  men  and 
women  had  toiled  for  many  weary  years : 
and  neither  they  nor  the  public  could 
see  any  reason  why  this  young  "Psalm- 
singing  hypocrite"  (as  they  called  Ar- 
thur) should  not  be  dealt  with  according 
to  the  terms  of  the  highly  penal  statutes 
which  had  been  passed  for  the  punish- 
1*1 


182  The  Teller  s  Tale 

ment  of  just  such  a  wilful  and  criminal 
breach  of  an  important  trust  as  this 
was  shown  to  be;  he  was  undoubtedly 
guilty,  and  must  therefore  suffer  the 
consequences. 

I  had  procured  a  continuance  of  Ar- 
thur's case  until  the  hearing  of  the  case 
on  the  constitutionality  of  the  law,  hoping 
that  a  compromise  might  be  made  with 
the  bank  in  case  they  had  to  stand  the 
loss,  and  that  they  would  show  mercy 
to  an  employee  and  his  mother,  notwith- 
standing the  idea  (generally  accepted) 
that  "corporations  have  no  souls";  or 
that  the  chief  witnesses,  being  then  no 
longer  interested  in  the  prosecution  and 
some  of  them  being  residents  of  other 
States,  would  probably  not  attend  the 
trial. 

But  these  were  not  all  the  barriers  to 
freedom.  As  already  stated,  so  long  as 
Mrs.  Ward  lived,  Arthur's  compact  with 
the  dead  prevented  him  from  producing 
the  indisputable  evidences  of  his  inno- 
cence. Surely,  "His  ways  are  past  find- 
ing out " ;  and,  though,  it  is  said,  we  may 


Weeping  at  Night  183 

see  by  faith,  what  is  it  that  we  see  ?  Our 
will?  Nay  verily.  We  see  in  the  place 
of  our  will,  the  will  of  God,  in  which 
alone  we  have  pleasure,  no  matter  what 
burden  He  may  place  upon  us;  and  this 
reconciliation  is  the  first  fruits  of  faith. 

Mrs.  Ward  was  surprisingly  healthful, 
considering  her  bereavements  and  the 
fact  that  she,  seemingly,  had  nothing  to 
live  for.  She  divided  her  time  between 
caring  for  her  flowers  and  chickens,  and 
making  daily  visits  to  the  grave  of  Albert 
— whose  praises  she  sang  in  continued 
numbers,  whenever  and  wherever  she 
found  some  one  to  give  her  audience. 
She  showed  Mrs.  St.  John  every  kindness, 
though  there  was  an  air  of  patronizing 
condescension  running  through  her  gen- 
erosity. 


CHAPTER  XXVI 

TRUTH    MOVES    UNSEEN 

ALL  efforts  at  a  further  continuance  of 
Arthur's  case  proved  useless,  and  it 
was  scheduled  to  begin  on  the  second 
Monday  of  the  approaching  term.  Jus- 
tice seemed  to  cry  aloud  for  the  victim, 
like  a  hungry  wolf  waiting  for  its  prey; 
and  it  seemed  better  for  the  defendant 
that  no  further  delay  motion  should  be 
interposed. 

When  court  opened  the  room  was  filled 
to  its  full  capacity,  there  being  present, 
besides  the  general  curious  public  and 
parties  litigant,  members  of  the  press, 
visiting  attorneys,  and  candidates  for 
State,  district,  and  county  offices. 

The  morning  hour  of  the  court  hav- 
ing been  given  over  to  the  candidates  in 
184 


Truth  Moves  Unseen         185 

the  presentation  of  their  claims  to  their 
fellow  citizens,  Arthur's  case  was  called 
immediately  after  the  noon  recess,  a  jury 
was  empanelled,  and  the  expert  who  had 
examined  the  books  of  the  bank  was 
placed  on  the  stand  as  the  chief  witness 
for  the  prosecution.  He  testified  as  to 
the  condition  of  the  bank's  affairs  on  the 
day  Arthur  was  arrested,  and  named  the 
accounts  in  which  the  discrepancies  ex- 
isted. The  pass-books  of  such  accounts 
showed  one  set  of  balances ;  the  books  of 
account  of  the  bank  showed  a  different  set. 
The  entries  in  the  pass-books  had  been 
made  mainly  by  Arthur,  for  they  were  in 
his  knowrn  handwriting.  He  had  brought 
down  many  of  the  balances  in  the  de- 
positors' books,  and  in  statements  made 
to  the  depositors ;  and  he  had  knowledge 
of  the  balances  in  the  portfolios  of  the 
bank.  There  were  differences  in  the  two 
sets  of  balances,  amounting,  so  the  ex- 
pert said,  to  more  than  sixty  thousand 
dollars.  Arthur  knew  these  differences 
existed ;  his  silence  showed  that  he  origi- 
nated them.  Nothing  could  be  plainer. 


1 86  The  Teller's  Tale 

On  my  cross-examination  the  expert 
admitted  that  he  did  not  know  whether 
the  abstractions  were  made  by  Arthur, 
or  by  another  with  his  knowledge. 

Just  as  I  concluded  my  cross-examina- 
tion, my  assistant,  Mr.  Bryan,  was 
granted  the  privilege  of  propounding  a 
few  questions,  which  he  did,  as  per  the 
following  dialogue  between  him  and  the 
witness : 

Q.  These  embezzlements  occurred 
from  transferring  funds  from  certain  ac- 
counts, either  arbitrarily  by  somebody 
in  charge  of  the  business,  or  by  the  use  of 
forged  checks  in  the  hands  of  some  out- 
side person,  did  they  not? 

A.  Yes. 

Q.  Did  you  observe  any  checks- 
fraudulent  checks — in  any  of  these  short 
accounts? 

A.  I  did  not. 

Q.  When  did  such  discrepancies  occur? 
I  mean  between  the  pass-books  of  certain 
depositors  you  have  mentioned,  and  the 
books  of  the  bank? 

A.    I  do  not  know.     I  did  not  extend 


Truth  Moves  Unseen         187 

the  examination,  in  this  particular,  far 
enough  back  to  discover  when  they 
occurred. 

Q.  Then  do  you  know  who  made  the 
false  entries  or  fraudulent  transfers? 

A.   I  do  not — except — except— 

"That  will  do,"  said  Mr.  Bryan;  and 
before  I  realized  what  had  occurred  he 
was  on  his  feet  asking  for  a  jury  and 
verdict  of  "not  guilty  "  on  this  testimony. 
The  district  attorney,  in  his  dilemma,  at 
once  demanded  that  the  jury  be  with- 
drawn and  the  case  continued,  with  di- 
rections to  the  expert  accountant  to 
carry  his  investigations  back  to  the 
beginning  of  the  mischief.  The  court 
sustained  his  motion,  over  our  objection, 
on  the  ground  that  nothing  short  of  an 
actual  trial  on  the  merits  of  the  case 
could  be  claimed  as  putting  the  de- 
fendant in  jeopardy  and  entitling  him  to 
an  acquittal.  In  this  way  the  case  went 
over  again  for  the  term. 

I  did  not  know  until  some  weeks  after- 
wards that  Alice  Wilmot,  believing  that 
Arthur  was  innocent,  and  suspecting  his 


1 88  The  Teller's  Tale 

reasons  for  not  proclaiming  his  innocence 
to  the  world,  had  discovered,  through 
Wilmot  Ross,  the  new  bookkeeper  at  the 
bank,  that  the  discrepancies  in  the  ac- 
counts occurred  before  Albert's  death; 
and,  believing  there  was  a  possibility  of 
saving  Arthur  in  spite  of  his  apparent 
guilt,  she  had  taken  Mr.  Bryan  into  her 
confidence,  which  resulted  in  his  asking 
the  questions. 

Certain  it  is,  however,  that  if  those 
questions  had  not  been  asked,  the  jury 
would  have  convicted  Arthur  by  the 
close  of  that  day  in  spite  of  all  that  we 
could  do. 

Of  course,  the  reader  knows  that  I  was 
forbidden  by  Arthur  to  ask  any  question 
which  might  eventually  reflect  on  Albert. 

The  victims  of  the  frauds  and  their 
friends,  and  the  people  generally,  again 
cried  out  "trick,"  "technicality,"  and 
censured  the  court  and  all  concerned  at 
the  enforced  delay — not  one  of  them  sus- 
pecting that  there  was  the  least  merit  on 
the  side  of  the  defendant. 

How  often  are  we  deceived  by  appear- 


Truth  Moves  Unseen         189 

ances ;  and  how  often  are  we  wholly  mis- 
taken, not  only  in  our  own  beliefs,  but 
also  in  our  most  confident  assumptions 
of  fact!  Surely  we  ought  to  be  patient, 
all  of  us,  everywhere  and  under  all  cir- 
cumstances, unto  the  very  end  and  con- 
clusion of  every  matter. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  the  evi- 
dence on  its  face  was  so  overwhelmingly 
strong  against  Arthur  that  not  even  a 
doubting  Thomas  could  be  found  any- 
where; for,  in  order  to  conceal  the  con- 
nection of  Albert  with  his  fraud,  Arthur 
had  surrendered  all  the  original  certi- 
ficates of  stock  and  caused  new  issues  in 
his  own  name,  thereby  destroying  all  evi- 
dences in  his  possession,  or  about  the 
bank,  that  Albert  had  ever  owned  a  share 
of  stock  or  speculated  a  dollar  therein. 

What  need  for  an  expert  to  go  back 
beyond  such  evidence  as  this,  especially 
when  the  mind  is  prepared  to  accept  sur- 
face indications  as  proof?  And  are  not 
most  of  us  of  that  mind  when  it  comes  to 
confirming  evil  report  ?  Why  should  it  be 
considered  necessary  to  go  back  beyond, 


190  The  Teller's  Tale 

the  present  appearances,  since  Arthur  had 
not  publicly  denied  his  guilt,  and  there 
did  not  seem  to  be  even  a  pretence  that 
he  was  innocent  of  the  charge?  Under 
such  circumstances  it  is  not  to  be  won- 
dered that  the  temper  of  the  people  was 
sorely  tried  at  the  continued  delays  in 
the  hearing  of  the  case. 

But  Mr.  Adams,  the  expert,  delved 
among  the  books  of  the  bank  night  after 
night,  and  week  after  week,  with  the 
persistence  which  is  born  of  habit — the 
habit  of  looking  beyond  externalities, 
and  discovering  first  causes  and  hidden 
motives.  He  looked  in  vain  for  any 
hidden  evidences — any  tangible  proof- 
that  another  than  Arthur  St.  John  was 
responsible  for,  or  instrumental  in,  the 
embezzlement  of  the  sixty  thousand 
dollars.  The  proof  pointed  to  no  other 
person,  he  said;  and  it  was  with  sorrow 
that  he  prepared  his  report  which  con- 
tained this  information,  for  he  had  felt 
all  the  while  an  indefinable  leaning  to 
Arthur — a  subconsciousness  that  de- 
clared him  innocent. 


Truth  Moves  Unseen         191 

The  stock  and  security  turned  over  to 
the  bank  by  Arthur  as  security  for  the 
sums  embezzled,  were  put  up  and  sold  to 
the  highest  bidder  after  the  decision  of 
the  Court  on  the  test  case,  and  they  were 
bought  in  for  a  considerable  sum,  much 
to  the  surprise  of  every  one — as  to  the 
price,  I  mean, — by  a  prominent  broker, 
who  declined  to  give  the  name  of  his 
principal. 


CHAPTER  XXVII 

THE    WASTE-BASKET 

AS  Mr.  Adams  sat  at  a  desk  in  the 
bank,  waiting  to  submit  his  type- 
written report  to  Mr.  Price  before  filing  it 
in  court,  he  reached  down  into  the  waste- 
basket  for  paper  to  scribble  on.  What  a 
strange  thing  happened!  How  wonder- 
ful that  out  of  all  the  cast-off  and  worth- 
less paper,  scraps,  and  circulars,  he 
should  have  selected  a  letter  from  Bul- 
lock &  Co.  of  Denver,  addressed  to 
Albert  Ward,  which  had  been  thrown 
away  because  of  its  resemblance  to  the 
ordinary  circulars  sent  out  by  brokers. 

This  letter  stated,  among  other  things, 

that    "The    shares   of   Gold   Coin   with 

which  you  have  shown  much  patience, 

are  certain  to  improve  in  value  soon,  as 

192 


Mr.  Adams  reached  down  into  the  waste  basket  for  paper  to 
scribble  on. 


The  Waste-Basket  193 

there  are  indications  of  a  rich  vein  near 
the  north  tunnel,  and  we  are  anxious 
that  you  should  increase  your  holdings 
to  double  your  present  shares,  which  you 
may  do  on  the  inclosed  blank,  etc." 
Adams  had  examined  the  stock  certi- 
ficates. Gold  Coin,  like  the  others,  was 
issued  to  Arthur  St.  John;  but  here  was 
proof  that  it  was  sold  to  Albert  Ward! 

In  less  than  a  week  Adams  had  the 
original  of  every  certificate  that  had 
figured  in  the  case,  and  they  proved  to 
be  in  the  name  of  Albert  Ward.  The 
correspondence  itself,  which  occurred  at 
the  time  of  the  purchases,  was  resur- 
rected— all  of  which  was  with,  and  by, 
Albert  Ward! 

And  as  conclusive  proof  that  these 
stocks  had  been  purchased  by  Albert 
with  the  money  of  the  bank,  the  dates  of 
their  purchase  and  the  amounts  paid  for 
them  corresponded  with  the  dates  and 
amounts  of  the  embezzlements  from  the 
bank. 

Truth  indeed  is  stranger  than  fiction. 
Neither  Wilmot  Ross  nor  the  bank's 


194  The  Teller's  Tale 

shrewd  detective-accountant  had  been 
able  to  discover  these  things  in  the  bank ; 
and  but  for  this  hybrid  correspondence- 
half  circular,  half  letter,  —  lying  in  a 
mass  of  nothingness,  and  the  accidental 
thought  which  prompted  its  discovery, 
this  book  would  have  been  written  a  differ- 
ent way,  if  at  all,  for  it  would  have  taken 
some  other  intervention  of  Providence  to 
save  Arthur  St.  John  from  a  felon's  cell. 

It  is  a  long  lane  that  never  turns, 
thought  Alice  Wilmot  when  Wilmot  Ross 
came  in  on  his  way  from  the  bank  to 
tell  them  what  Mr.  Adams  had  found  in 
the  waste-basket. 

Believing  strongly  that  Alice  was  be- 
hind the  herculean  efforts  being  made  to 
prove  him  guiltless,  although  no  one  had 
intimated  as  much  to  him,  Arthur  called 
to  see  her  at  once,  and  said,  "How  can 
you  do  this,  Alice,  when  you  know  it  will 
kill  her?" 

"Whom  do  you  refer  to?"  said  Alice. 

"To  Mrs.  Ward,  the  proud  mother  of 
him  who  was  your  lover — my  friend." 

"Yes,"  she  said,  "but  there  are  others 


The  Waste-Basket  195 

just  as  proud  as  she.  There  are  heart- 
strings, sore  with  aching,  whose  joy  will 
know  no  bounds  when  they  are  assured 
that  this  great  incubus — the  accusation 
against  you — is  lifted  from  your  life  and 
theirs  forever.  Are  you  not  willing  that 
I  should  comfort  them?" 

"Why  do  you  say  'they'  and  'them,' 
Alice?  Do  you  not  know  that  mother  is 
all  I  have?  I  have  not  seen  Mary  Blair 
since  the  opera  party,  the  night  before 
the  awful  discovery  at  the  bank.  She 
went  away  without  a  word  to  me — sail- 
ing with  her  parents  for  France  a  short 
while  thereafter, — never  granting  me  an 
opportunity  to  assert  my  innocence  or 
explain  my  position,  even  if  I  had  chosen 
to  do  so.  She  was,  as  you  know,  the 
woman  I  expected  to  drink  with  me 
from  any  cup — bitter  or  sweet — which 
might  be  mine.  But  her  revealed  weak- 
ness in  failing  to  meet  love's  test  at  the 
critical  time,  has  taken  her  out  of  my 
life  as  completely  as  if  she  had  never 
been  in  it. 

"Since  that  time  I  have  lived  to  carry 


196  The  Teller's  Tale 

out  the  pledge  to  dear  Albert,  and  to 
make  his  loved  ones  happy  by  shielding 
his  name.  His  faults  were  not  selfish 
ones.  Had  it  not  been  for  the  love  he 
bore  others,  the  sins  which  did  so  easily 
beset  him  would  never  have  taken  hold 
of  his  life.  Pardon  me,  but  I  know  how 
dearly  you  love  his  memory,  and  how 
your  heart  is  entwined  about  his  good 
mother.  I  also  know  that  your  womanly 
intuition  and  sympathetic  motives  have 
led  you  unerringly  to  a  knowledge  of  the 
truth. 

"Why  do  you  make  this  discovery 
known  at  this  time?  Why  do  you  de- 
prive me  of  the  privilege  of  immolating 
myself  on  the  altar  of  friendship,  and  of 
keeping  my  solemn  vows  to  the  dead?" 

Confusion  of  thought  may  come  from 
that  joyous  fulness  of  heart  which  with- 
holds the  blood  from  the  brain  and  makes 
speech  impossible.  Confusion  of  speech 
may  come  from  a  modesty  which  forbids 
the  tongue  give  utterance  to  thought. 

Alice  Wilmot  was  confused.  Had  she 
been  a  man  that  confusion  would  have 


The  Waste-Basket  197 

been  routed  in  a  moment.  Her  hair  put 
on  a  brighter  gloss,  her  blue  eyes  seemed  a 
deeper  blue,  and  her  lithe  figure  looked 
more  queenly  in  the  soft  Southern  twi- 
light, as,  with  diplomatic  parries,  she 
evaded  Arthur's  questions  with  such  re- 
sources as  she  could  command. 

At  last  she  said,  "Let  the  dead  past 
bury  its  dead;  whatever  is  finished  is 
finished.  Nothing  we  can  do  can  change 
the  trend  or  purpose  of  a  life  already 
spent.  Our  duty  is  to  the  living.  I  did 
not  love  Albert  Ward.  I  loved  what  I 
hoped  he  would  be — what  I  tried  to  be- 
lieve he  was, — not  what  he  really  was, 
or  would  have  been  had  his  life  been  free 
from  the  positive  sins  which  I  now  know 
lay  at  his  door.  I  could  never  love  a 
selfishness  which  accepts  from  another 
the  sacrifice  which  I  have  reason  to  be- 
lieve he  accepted  from  you — which  he 
requested  you  to  make." 

Arthur  and  Alice  both  realized  at  one 
time,  and  for  the  first  time,  that  each 
loved  the  other  and  had  done  so  for 
years.  Nothing  but  the  unselfishness 


198  The  Teller's  Tale 

of  true  love  could  have  blinded  them 
so  long.  Alice  had  presumed  that  Arthur 
was  faithful  to  Mary  Blair,  and  she  to 
him,  although  he  had  not  mentioned 
her  in  many  a  day.  And  Arthur  had 
taken  for  granted  that  the  heart  of  Alice 
— of  late  so  tender  and  gentle  in  all  her 
ways  and  words — was  lying  beneath 
Bethesda's  sod,  where,  under  the  touch 
of  fair  hands,  flowers  bloomed  in  peren- 
nial glory. 

Did  Alice  know  it  was  not  Albert  nor 
his  memory  she  adored,  but  rather  the 
association  of  his  life  with  Arthur's  life? 
No;  she  did  not  realize  that  her  heart 
was  expressing  a  metonymy  of  love. 
She  did  not  know  that  there  are  figures 
of  feeling  or  heart -knowledge  stronger 
than  any  figures  of  speech. 

That  Arthur  and  Alice  had  sacrificed 
themselves  for  a  principle,  and  were  true 
to  a  love  which  promised  no  fruition,  are 
proofs  that  there  are  yet  some  flowers 
of  Eden  undefiled  by  the  trail  of  the 
serpent. 

Each  now  realized  the  destiny  of  the 


The  Waste-Basket  199 

hour,  and  with  the  words  "Alice," 
"Arthur,"  trembling  for  utterance,  they 
surrendered  to  a  love  which  had  made 
them  one  of  heart  long  before.  And  this 
was  love's  awakening.  The  mind  was 
taught  of  the  heart  in  the  language  of 
affection  which  needed  not  the  conven- 
tionalities of  speech  to  give  it  expression. 

"My  dearest  ^\lice,"  said  Arthur  after 
a  while,  "in  spite  of  my  efforts  to  con- 
ceal the  real  offender  against  the  law, 
and  in  spite  of  my  earnest  efforts  to  be 
true  to  him  who  trusted  his  secret  to  me, 
the  curtain  is  about  to  be  drawn  aside 
to  reveal  some  of  the  unseen  things  of 
this  life ;  and  I  pray  God  that,  with  your 
love  and  strength  to  help  me,  I  may  be 
as  true  to  you  in  my  new  life  of  self -de- 
velopment, as  I  have  been  to  another  these 
many  days  in  sacrifice  and  immolation." 

"I  trust  you  implicitly,"  she  said, 
"for  in  your  devotion  to  others,  in  your 
suffering  for  principle's  sake,  you  have 
shown  yourself  worthy  to  receive  unto 
your  keeping  my  life  and  my  love,  and  to 
mould  them  both  for  their  highest  good." 


CHAPTER  XXVIII 

THE    DEATH    OF   MRS.    WARD 

"Be  good,  sweet  maid,  and  let  who  will  be  clever; 

Do  noble  things,  not  dream  them,  all  day  long; 
And  so  make  life,  death,  and  that  vast  forever 
One  grand,  sweet  song." 

BEFORE  the  dawn  of  the  day  on 
which  Mr.  Adams  filed  his  report 
with  the  clerk  of  the  court,  Mrs.  Ward 
lay  stricken  with  paralysis;  and  in  spite 
of  the  best  medical  attention  she  passed 
away  on  the  second  day  of  her  illness. 
Mrs.  St.  John,  Alice,  and  Arthur  tried  to 
comfort  her  in  the  last  hours  of  her  life; 
and,  in  half -consciousness,  she  seemed 
to  realize  the  bond  between  the  lovers, 
and  gave  them,  kneeling  at  her  bed,  the 
blessing  of  her  last  breath — murmuring 
the  name  of  Albert,  as  if  she  gave  his 


The  Death  of  Mrs.  Ward     201 

blessing  with  her  own,  or  thought  it  was 
he  who  was  making  a  happy  marriage. 

Mrs.  Ward  being  the  last  of  her  family, 
her  death  had  in  it  a  touch  of  sadness 
which  appealed  to  us  with  the  thought 
that  she  died  not  for  herself  alone,  but 
that  with  her  perished  the  hopes,  the 
aspirations,  and  the  possibilities  of  a 
long  line  of  ancestors  who  had  fur- 
nished to  the  world,  in  their  time,  both 
brain  and  brawn  to  make  it  better. 

Without  the  cottage,  nature  was  joy- 
ous in  the  light  of  spring.  How  out  of 
harmony  with  the  sorrow  we  felt  within ! 
For  the  watchers  by  the  side  of  death, 
even  in  the  light  of  faith,  can  catch  but 
feeble  glimpses  of  the  glories  which 
await  a  redeemed  soul  in  the  world 
beyond. 

And  as  Mrs.  Ward  lay  in  her  little 
parlor  shrouded  in  the  emblem  of  purity, 
and  loving  hands  were  weaving  the 
jasmine  and  the  rose  into  garlands  for 
her  grave,  tearful  eyes  looked  upon  her 
for  the  last  time,  and  voices,  tender  with 
emotion,  recalled  her  virtues  in  a  flood 


202  The  Teller's  Tale 

of  pathetic  memories  which  clustered 
about  her  life.  While,  far  down  the 
street,  where  busy  throngs  were  hurrying 
to  and  fro  intent  upon  the  duties  of  the 
day,  the  voice  of  the  newsboy  was  heard 
crying  the  Morning  News  which  was 
publishing  to  the  world  the  story  of 
Albert  Ward  and  his  crime. 

Arthur  St.  John  heard  this  cry,  and, 
turning,  looked  upon  the  placid  features 
of  her  who  was  now  beyond  the  pale  of 
pain  or  the  portals  of  poverty,  and  who 
had  gone,  without  a  final  sorrow,  to  meet 
her  God  in  peace ;  and  he  would  not  have 
given  his  approving  conscience,  in  that 
hour,  for  all  the  acclaim  a  world  might 
bestow. 

No ;  not  even  the  story  of  his  faithful- 
ness and  innocence,  which  newsmongers 
were  bartering  for  pennies  and  half -dimes 
on  the  streets  of  many  cities,  could  com- 
pare with  the  satisfaction  he  felt  in 
knowing  that,  through  his  suffering,  this 
poor  woman  had  been  saved  the  pangs 
of  despair  and  her  life  allowed  to  go  out 
in  peace. 


CHAPTER  XXIX 

THE   TOILS    UNWOUND 

THE  day  following  the  funeral  of  Mrs. 
Ward  was  one  long  to  be  remem- 
bered. From  morning  till  night  men  and 
women  were  calling  to  express  to  Arthur 
and  his  mother  their  great  satisfaction 
with  the  report  of  Mr.  Adams  and  its 
relation  to  him,  at  the  same  time  praising 
him  for  the  noble  manner  in  which  he  had 
borne  himself  throughout  the  trouble  and 
his  sacrificing  devotion  to  his  friend. 

And  although  many  desirable  positions 
were  offered  him  by  men  of  business,  with 
the  fullest  expression  of  confidence  in  his 
ability  and  integrity,  he  declined  all  their 
offers,  for  the  reason  that  he  was  still 
under  conviction  for  the  smaller  offence, 
and  there  were  other  indictments  of  the 
203 


204  The  Teller's  Tale 

same  kind  against  him ;  and,  being  tech- 
nically guilty,  he  wished  to  absolve  him- 
self from  all  charges  before  he  was  willing 
to  assume  any  other  responsibility. 

Not  only  this,  but  he  also  had  the  one 
controlling  determination  of  a  business 
nature — to  replace  to  those  who  had  lost 
their  money  in  the  bank,  so  much  of  it  as 
might  have  been  saved  had  he  reported 
to  his  employers,  in  the  beginning,  each 
and  every  doubtful  transaction  which 
came  under  his  observation;  and  he 
wished  to  do  nothing  which  might  in- 
terfere with  this  determination. 

He  wished  to  pay  this  money  as  a 
matter  of  principle,  and  there  were 
reasons  why  he  wished  to  do  so  at  once. 
It  is  true  that  the  tide  of  public  opinion 
had  set  so  steadily  toward  him  that  there 
would  have  been  no  danger  of  another 
conviction,  even  if  the  district  attorney 
had  insisted  on  another  trial;  and  it 
was  also  true  that  if  the  Court  had 
passed  sentence  on  him  for  the  conviction 
already  had  the  governor  would  at  once 
have  pardoned  him;  nevertheless,  his 


The  Toils  Unwound          205 

conscience  told  him  that  it  was  more 
honorable  to  pay  the  penalty  for  the 
wrong  done  than  to  avoid  punishment, 
so  long  as  a  wrong  of  his  had  resulted 
in  injury  to  others,  and  that  he  could 
redeem  himself  only  by  making  them 
whole. 

How  he  was  to  undo  such  wrong  and 
thus  satisfy  his  conscience  in  time  for  the 
next  term  of  court,  was  a  question  he 
despaired  of  answering,  for  he  knew  not 
how  it  could  be  done.  The  toils  of  the 
law  were  no  longer  about  him  and  no 
longer  feared,  but  the  sense  of  right  and 
wrong  within  him  (the  higher  law)  had 
yet  to  be  satisfied. 

The  law  of  conscience  is  older  than  the 
Decalogue.  By  it  we  are  acquitted  or 
condemned  according  to  the  quality  of 
each  act;  and  a  jury's  verdict  can  no 
more  reverse  its  decrees  than  the  statutes 
of  man  can  repeal  the  commandments  of 
God. 


CHAPTER  XXX 

FROM    OVER   THE    SEA 

THE  train  which  brought  the  Morning 
News  on  the  day  of  Mrs.  Ward's 
death,  also  brought  a  letter  to  Mrs.  St. 
John,  with  a  foreign  post-mark  on  it.  It 
was  from  Mrs.  Blair  in  Paris.  She  wrote 
to  explain  to  Mrs.  St.  John  why  the 
family  had  gone  away  so  suddenly  after 
the  troubles  which  had  come  upon  her 
in  the  discovery  of  Arthur's  dishonesty, 
and  regretting  that  it  had  not  been 
possible  for  her  and  Mary  to  see  Mrs.  St. 
John  and  offer  her  such  consolation  as 
they  could  under  the  circumstances, 
before  departure.  The  reason  for  their 
haste,  she  wrote,  was  the  receipt  of  a 
telegram  saying  that  the  steamer  on 
which  they  had  engaged  passage  would 
206 


From  Over  the  Sea          207 

leave  port  within  three  days,  which  time 
was  just  sufficient  to  allow  them  to  reach 
New  York. 

Alice  Wilmot  also  received  a  letter 
from  the  same  source — a  longer  one.  To 
her,  Mrs.  Blair  expressed  the  greatest 
satisfaction  in  the  happy  circumstance 
that  she  and  Mr.  Blair  had  been  able  to 
delay  the  expected  marriage  of  Arthur 
and  Mary  time  after  time,  and  that  they 
and  Mary  were  now  doubly  happy  at  the 
narrow  escape  which  the  family  had  in 
the  timely  discovery  of  Arthur's  rascal- 
ity and  unfaithfulness. 

Mrs.  Blair  consoled  Alice  in  the  double 
affliction  which  had  been  brought  on  her 
by  the  death  of  Albert;  for  in  him,  she 
said,  Alice  had  not  only  lost  her  heart's 
desire — a  noble  friend  and  intended  hus- 
band, but  her  fortune  as  well.  Mrs. 
Blair  had  just  learned  that  Arthur  had 
stolen  Alice's  money.  If  Albert  had 
lived  this  would  not  have  occurred,  for 
his  watchfulness  and  integrity  would  have 
been  a  barrier  that  lurking  dishonesty 
could  not  overcome. 


208  The  Teller's  Tale 

Mrs.  Blair  said  that  what  was  for  one 
person's  weal  was  for  another's  woe; 
for  had  Albert  lived  to  prevent  the  early 
development  and  display  of  Arthur's 
dishonest  character,  Minister  Blair  and 
herself  would  probably  have  been  power- 
less to  prevent  Mary's  marriage  to  him, 
and  they  would  have  shared  in  his  dis- 
grace when  it  did  come. 

Mrs.  Blair  also  gave  Alice  the  compli- 
ments of  Mary — the  Countess  De  Marti- 
neau, —  who  was  then  with  her  husband 
on  a  bridal  cruise  along  the  shores  of  the 
Mediterranean.  They  had  been  married 
only  a  few  days,  Mary  having  at  last 
yielded  to  the  better  counsels  of  her 
father  and  mother  and  answered  favor- 
ably the  protracted  suit  of  the  young 
nobleman.  The  downfall  of  Arthur  had 
not  only  broken  down  one  idol,  but  had 
raised  another  in  her  heart;  for  when 
she  saw  that  father's  and  mother's  pre- 
monitions with  respect  to  Arthur  were 
verified,  she  was  prepared  to  accept  their 
well-considered  opinion  of  the  Count. 

Mrs.  Blair  had  but  one  regret — that 


From  Over  the  Sea          209 

they  were  not  able  to  make  the  dot  of 
their  daughter  large — commensurate  with 
the  title  and  position  she  had  assumed; 
but  this  they  hoped  to  increase  in  the 
near  future,  when  the  arid  lands  and 
other  investments  owned  by  Mr.  Blair  in 
America  should  reach  their  long-delayed 
high  tide  of  value.  However,  their  hap- 
piness could  hardly  be  affected  by  their 
inability  to  do  their  full  duty,  for, 
happily,  the  Count,  by  the  recent  death 
of  his  uncle,  a  wealthy  merchant  of 
Marseilles,  had  fallen  heir  to  one  of  the 
most  valuable  estates  on  the  Continent. 

Another  letter  came  to  Alice  from  Mrs. 
Blair  a  few  days  later —  a  confidential 
one,  this  time.  The  Blairs  were  in 
trouble.  Minister  Blair  had  encountered 
difficulties  with  his  American  properties 
— not  only  in  their  development,  but  as 
to  his  right  and  title  to  the  same.  The 
cablegram  from  his  agents  did  not  ex- 
plain fully;  and  they  were  awaiting  a 
letter  for  fuller  information.  Mrs.  Blair 

thought   it   probable   that   the   trouble 
14 


210  The  Teller's  Tale 

would  necessitate  their  coming  to 
America  that  summer,  and  their  friends 
need  not  be  surprised  to  see  them. 

A  telegram  in  the  press  from  Wash- 
ington, soon  after  that,  stated  that 
Minister  Blair  was  expected  home  on  a 
leave  of  absence.  In  political  circles  it 
was  whispered  that  a  congressional  in- 
vestigating committee,  working  in  vaca- 
tion, had  unearthed  substantial  proofs  of 
transactions  during  Mr.  Blair's  congres- 
sional career  (long  since  hinted  at), 
which  the  President  did  not  care  to  have 
made  public  until  he  had  talked  with  the 
minister  himself  with  a  view  to  his 
permanent  recall. 


"  The  mills  of  the  gods  grind  slowly, 
But  they  grind  exceeding  small ; 
For  with  patience  stands  he  waiting, 
And  with  exactness  grinds  he  all." 

Some  weeks  more  have  passed.  Min- 
ister Blair  and  wife  have  returned  to  this 
country,  the  former  stopping  in  Wash- 
ington to  see  the  President,  the  latter 


From  Over  the  Sea          211 

coming  direct  home.  Again  the  news- 
paper attracts  our  eye — the  foreign  col- 
umn this  time,  and  from  Paris  too.  Here 
is  what  we  read : 

A    YOUNG   WIFE    DESERTED 

PARIS,  June  2. — Madame  De  Mar- 
tineau,  daughter  of  Minister  Blair  of 
America  (lately  recalled),  wife  of  Count 
De  Martineau — known  in  the  gay  world 

as  "Jules ",  called  at  the  Hospital 

Des  Invalides  where  she  was  given  suc- 
cor late  yesterday.  It  is  believed  that 
she  is  dying  of  a  broken  heart.  She  and 
the  Count  were  married  in  April  and 
went  on  a  tour  of  the  Mediterranean. 
Ever  since  their  return,  a  week  or  more 
ago,  according  to  the  story  of  the 
Countess,  he  has  been  almost  constantly 
absent  from  their  apartments.  Fol- 
lowing him  in  disguise  one  night,  she 
found  that  he  was  spending  the  time 
in  his  old  haunts  among  the  demi- 
monde of  the  Latin  Quarter.  Sick  and 
broken-hearted,  she  has  determined 
that  he  shall  not  return  to  her  again, 
even  if  he  desires  to  do  so. 

It  is  said  among  his  friends,  that  the 
Count  was  disappointed  on  returning 
home  to  find  that  the  marriage  portion 
expected  from  Minister  Blair  (reported 
heretofore  to  be  very  wealthy),  was  not 
forthcoming. 

It  is  also  reported  that  the  Countess 
and  her  parents  were  under  the  impres- 
sion that  the  penniless  Count  had  in- 
herited a  large  fortune  from  a  deceased 
relative  in  the  south  of  France — a 
miserable  falsehood  of  his  own,  no  doubt. 


CHAPTER  XXXI 

JOY    IN   THE    MORNING 

TTAVE  my  readers  guessed  the  name 
*•  *  of  the  unknown  purchaser  of  Gold 
Coin?  It  was  Alice  Wilmot.  She  had 
a  vision — a  dream — an  instinctive  im- 
pression, or  an  enlightenment  of  con- 
sciousness— call  it  what  we  may — which 
informed  her  that  this  stock  bore  an 
important  relation  to  Arthur  and  his 
troubles,  and  that  it  would  one  day  work 
his  complete  redemption;  and  she  fol- 
lowed this  vision  until,  through  Mr. 
Battle,  the  broker,  she  had  secured  the 
certificates  and  placed  them  under  lock 
and  key  in  her  little  safe  at  home. 

To  no  one  else  did  she  confide  her 
secret — not  even  to  Arthur  after  their 
engagement;  for,  still  nursing  her  hope, 

212 


Joy  in  the  Morning          213 

she  wished  to  surprise  him  when  the  day 
should  come  for  her  vision  to  prove  itself 
in  fulfilment. 

Could  faith,  and  hope,  and  love  go 
farther  ? 

What  was  it  that  led  her  unerringly, 
not  only  to  a  correct  knowledge  of  the 
lives  of  Albert  and  Arthur,  their  sepa- 
rate and  various  motives,  and  their 
relations  to  each  other,  but  also,  of  the 
relations  between  them  and  the  things 
animate  and  inanimate  with  which  they 
had  to  do,  and  the  influences  which  these 
things  would  have  upon  their  lives  ? — yes ; 
and  even  the  destinies  which  awaited 
them  in  this  world  ? 

The  pomp  and  expectancy  of  pro- 
phetic vision  are  no  longer  factors  in  the 
affairs  of  men.  The  seer  has  now  no 
accredited  influence ;  and  transcendental- 
ism is  reckoned  a  myth.  Nevertheless, 
there  is  an  intelligence  apart  from  the 
ordinary  channels  of  information  and 
thought,  which  operates  on  some  minds 
and  guides  them  to  correct  conclusions. 

Whence  comes  this  power  we  know  not, 


The  Teller's  Tale 


unless  it  be  from  above.  And  why  given 
to  some,  and  not  to  others,  we  know  not, 
unless  it  be  a  concomitant  of  that  in- 
herited virtue,  and  personal,  redeemed 
goodness,  which  is  fit  to  receive  guidance 
''into  all  truth"  by  the  Spirit  of  the 
living  God,  who  will  also  "show  you 
things  to  come." 

We  may  be  sure  that  we  shall  only 
receive  such  gifts  of  speech,  or  sight,  or 
knowledge,  when  we  are  able  to  use 
them  for  our  highest  good. 

On  the  morning  of  June  3d,  a  telegram 
to  the  Associated  Press  from  Colorado 
Springs  announced  the  complete  success 
of  Gold  Coin  and  an  advance  of  its  stock 
to  seventy-five  cents  on  the  dollar,  with 
the  expectation  that  it  would  soon  be- 
come more  valuable.  And  while  Arthur 
was  reading  the  morning  paper  which  con- 
tainedthis  announcement,  and  wasbreath- 
ing  a  sigh  of  regret  that  this  did  not  come 
in  time  to  save  Albert's  good  name  and 
avert  the  trouble  through  which  he  himself 
had  passed,  Alice  placed  in  his  hands  the 
certificates  of  stock  which  she  had  bought. 


Joy  in  the  Morning  215 

In  less  than  ten  days  Arthur  had 
pledged  the  stock  for  an  amount  equal  to 
the  entire  sum  due  on  Albert's  defalca- 
tion, and  had  paid  over  the  money  and 
held  the  receipts  of  the  bank  and  other 
interested  parties. 

When  court  met  satisfied  justice  had 
no  demand  against  him ;  and,  in  ordering 
his  final  discharge,  Judge  Hall  feelingly 
echoed  the  sentiments  of  the  public  as  to 
the  heroic  part  he  had  performed  in  the 
unfortunate  affair.  When  he  walked 
from  the  room  that  day  every  eye  that 
looked  upon  him  was  bedimmed  with 
tears  of  joy  at  his  deliverance. 

But,  best  of  all,  conscience, 

"  The  oracle  of  God," 

had  now  no  accusing  voice  to  mar  the 
great  happiness  which  a  perfect  love  had 
brought  into  his  life. 

Later  on,  he  was  unanimously  chosen 
cashier  of  the  County  Bank,  where  he 
began,  once  more,  a  service  acceptable 
to  all. 


216  The  Teller's  Tale 

In  the  meantime,  Gold  Coin  was  again 
marked  up  on  the  exchanges — this  time 
to  two  hundred, —  which  made  Arthur 
and  Alice  quite  independent. 

They  were  married  late  in  the  summer, 
in  the  little  church  where  both  had  been 
christened,  the  services  being  said  by  Dr. 
Palmer,  the  aged  and  beloved  pastor 
who  had  performed  every  rite  of  marriage 
in  the  two  families  for  forty  years. 

Afterwards,  they  went  on  a  tour  across 
the  seas,  leaving  Mrs.  St.  John  to  have 
the  new  home  furnished  against  their 
return. 


That  September,  while  driving  in  the 
Rue  Borgne,  in  a  suburb  of  Paris, 
Arthur  and  Alice  encountered  the  old 
family  servant  of  Mrs.  Blair,  who  showed 
them  the  neglected  grave  of  Mary  Blair 
in  a  little  cemetery  near  by;  and  they 
placed  some  flowers  there  in  memory  of 
what  she  had  been  to  them. 


They  placed  some  flowers  there  in  memory  of  what  she  had  been 
to  them. 


EPILOGISTIC 

"THE  NIMBLE  LIE 

Is  LIKE  THE  SECOND-HAND  UPON  A  CLOCK; 
WE  SEE  IT  FLY;  WHILE  THE  HOUR-HAND 

OF  TRUTH 

SEEMS  TO  STAND  STILL,  AND  YET  IT  MOVES 

UNSEEN, 
AND  WINS  AT  LAST,   FOR  THE  CLOCK  WILL 

NOT  STRIKE 
TILL  IT  HAS  REACHED  THE  GOAL." 


217 


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